Plunkett handed driving ban

Liam Plunkett has been banned from driving for 20 months and fined £2000 after admitting a drink-drive charge which occurred before he left for tour in Australia.

He appeared before Teeside Magistrates' Court in Middlesbrough a week after returning from the CB Series. Justices of the Peace banned him from driving for 20 months, fined him £2,000, ordered him to pay £50 costs and attend a drink-drive rehabilitation course.

The court was told that Plunkett was arrested for drink-driving after crashing his 4x4 into another car on his way back from a nightclub on October 19 last year. The incident happened at a set of traffic lights after Plunkett had left the Tall Trees nightclub in Yarn, near Stockton.

The court heard that, as Plunkett approached a set of traffic lights, his foot slipped off the brake and he crashed into another car. Plunkett gave a reading of 172mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 80mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood - meaning he was more than twice over the limit.