Pennant sentenced to three months in jail

Jermaine Pennant has today been jailed for three months for drink driving while banned from the road.

The 22-year-old Arsenal midfielder, currently on loan at Birmingham City, was also disqualified from driving for three years.

Pennant was arrested in January after he was spotted in a car park in Aylesbury driving a Mercedes with a lamp post dragging beneath it.

He admitted the charges last month.

Sentencing him today at Aylesbury Magistrates’ Court, chairman of magistrates John Jakobi told him there was no reasonable excuse for the journey.

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 of breath.

The former England Under-21 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 he 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.