Ipswich Town footballer guilty of driving drunk on night out
James Norwood's been banned from driving and issued with a fine.
Ipswich Town footballer James Norwood has been banned from driving for 40 months and fined £5,000 after he was found guilty of drink-driving on a night-out following a 1-0 loss to Cambridge United in a pre-season friendly.
The £200,000-per-year striker was driving his Audi Q8 when he was stopped by police near his home in Cockfield, eight miles south of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, at around 3am on August 30, Ipswich Magistrates' Court heard.
Officers had been tipped off by a member of the public.
The 30-year-old was arrested after failing a roadside breath test, then taken to Bury St Edmunds police station where a further breath test recorded him as having 58 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
The legal limit is 35 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
Norwood had been on a night-out with footballer Paul Mullin, who he knew from their time at Tranmere Rovers.
Mr Mullin was playing for Cambridge United when they beat League One Ipswich on August 29, in Cambridge, and he was lodging with Norwood at the time.
Norwood told magistrates that in the evening after the match he drove to the Aurora bar in Ipswich with Mr Mullin.
Norwood said he drove "because I've got the nicer car", and when asked why they did not take a taxi he replied: "I didn't see myself having more than one or two."
He said they arrived at the bar between 9.30pm and 10pm and each bought two pints of Birra Moretti lager while they were there, staying for around three hours.
Norwood said he drank "just under two pints", leaving some in each glass.
He agreed that he and Mr Mullin met two women at the bar, Norwood drove them all back to the women's flat and they stayed there for between 20 and 30 minutes.
Asked if he had anything more to drink while there, Norwood said: "No, they knew I was driving."
Prosecutor Robert Ireland asked Norwood if he had felt "intoxicated" and the footballer replied: "No, not at all."
Police constable Dominic Mason, the arresting officer, said Norwood was given a chance to provide a breath sample "five or six" times before successfully doing so, "suggesting the defendant wasn't blowing".
He did so after police "warned he would be arrested if he failed to provide a sample", Mr Mason said.
Norwood denied drink driving but was found guilty following a trial on Monday.
Presiding magistrate John Grover said of Norwood's account of what he had to drink: "We do not find this credible."
Mr Ireland said Norwood had a previous drink-driving conviction from 2012 and that an aggravating feature of the 2020 offence was that his passengers were "not only his friend Mr Mullin but also the two girls he met in Aurora bar".
Richard Berman, for Norwood, said the striker's take home pay was £4,000 per week.
Norwood was sentenced to a 40-month driving ban and fined £5,000.
He was also ordered to pay £750 in prosecution costs and a £190 victim surcharge.