Pennant set for sentence after admitting drink-drive charge
Footballer Jermaine Pennant faces jail today when he is sentenced for drink driving while banned from the road.
The 22-year-old Arsenal player, currently on loan at Birmingham City, was warned last month he could be given a jail sentence after he admitted the charges following an incident in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
Pennant was arrested in January after he was spotted in a car park in the town driving a Mercedes with a lamp post dragging beneath it.
Aylesbury Magistrates’ Court heard last month that when Pennant, of Barnet, north London, was stopped his eyes were glazed and his speech slurred.
A breath test found he was almost two-and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit with 85 microgrammes per 100ml of breath, the court heard. The legal maximum is 35 micrograms per 100ml.
The former England U21 star had been banned from driving for 16 months in February last year after being seen travelling in the wrong lane in Paddington, west London.
That period was later cut after the footballer completed a special course.
Pennant pleaded guilty at last month’s hearing to charges of drink driving, driving while disqualified and using a vehicle without insurance.
The Nottingham-born footballer scored a hat-trick on his full Premiership debut for Arsenal against Southampton in May 2003.
