A young Arsenal star crashed through signs and a wooden fence in his brand-new Range Rover Sport while twice the drink-drive limit after birthday vodka celebrations.
Chuba Amechi Akpom, 22, who has 45 England Youth caps, lost control at a roundabout near his home at 4.50am and mounted a grass verge as an off-duty policeman watched.
The six-foot centre-forward, of Wayside, Barnet Road, Barnet, was fined £9,350, with £85 costs and disqualified for seventeen months on Tuesday.
He pleaded guilty at Willesden Magistrates Court to driving the black 3-litre diesel automatic with 72 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath on December 17, last year.
The legal limit is 35.
Akpom has made ten first-team appearances for Arsenal and had loan spells with Brentford; Coventry City; Nottingham Forest; Hull City and Brighton & Hove Albion.
Prosecutor Mr. Zahid Hussain told the court Akpom, who signed his first pro contract with the Gunners the day after his seventeenth birthday, was driving near his home in Barnet Road.
“His driving was erratic and he was observed by an off-duty police officer. He was parallel to a Shell petrol station and lost control, mounting the grass verge.
“He crashed into roadside furniture then drove back towards the road and into a heavy-duty fencing, knocking it down and out of the ground.
“He caused extensive damage to his Range Rover and left considerable debris strewn around the road.”
Akpom failed a roadside breath-test and was taken to Colindale Police Station, from where he returned home by taxi.
His lawyer Mr. Aki Achillea told the court Akpom’s father feared the worst when he saw the damaged vehicle near the family home.
“His father woke up later and found the crashed car outside the gate with no driver and for a moment he was seriously concerned about what had happened to his son.
“He was about to ring hospitals and the police, fearing his son, being a high-profile footballer, had been abducted so this has effected the family as well.
“He has let himself down and made a dreadful mistake for a boy that has always been so disciplined.
“He succumbed to temptation. He went out with friends and they had a meal in the West End and after drinking only cranberry juice he drove to a club in Watford.
“Celebrating a friend’s twenty-first birthday he was drinking cranberry juice when he stupidly agreed for vodka to be put into his glass.
“He tells me he had two glasses and the cranberry juice disguised the taste of the vodka. For someone who does not drink alcohol it does have an effect.
“He clearly should have taken a taxi home, but it is not anything he considered because he has not done this before.
“He accepts he was not in a fit state to drive and lost control at a roundabout near his home.
“He lives very close to the club’s training ground and there have been discussions with Arsene Wenger about loaning him out and that could be anywhere in England.
“He will be in a place he doesn’t know and will be unable to drive. He will have to ensure there is someone who can drive him around and his movements will be curtailed by that burden.
“It will have an onerous effect on him, considering the risk to his safety and well-being.”
The court heard Akpom has been with Arsenal since he was seven years-old . “The dream of most young children is to grow up and become a professional footballer,” added the lawyer.
“Very few achieve that dream and even less to the extent that they become part of a Premier League football squad as this defendant is.
“In the days of billion pound deals, where a football club can recruit footballers from all over the world it is a fact this defendant is part of the first team squad at Arsenal.
“This defendant goes to work with international footballers as he makes his way to joining these players.
“He has made enormous sacrifices, as has his family, and his father sits in court today. There were considerable burdens for the family to get their young protege to matches.
“Football has dominated his entire life and with those great rewards he realises there comes responsibility.”
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