Burnley footballer sentenced for drink-driving

Burnley footballer Dale Stephens has been fined and banned from driving for a year after pleading guilty to drink-driving in Alderley Edge.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that Stephens, 32, of Nether Alderley in Cheshire, was stopped by police just before midnight on 14 March 2022 on Congleton Road in Alderley Edge.

They spoke to Stephens, who was the driver of the Range Rover car, and immediately smelt alcohol on him and his eyes looked slightly glazed.

The police officer asked him if he’d been drinking and he said he’d “had a pint”. The police officer then asked him to do a roadside breath test.

He was over the limit and was cautioned and taken to Middlewich police station.

On 4 April 2022, at Stockport Magistrates’ Court, Mr Stephens pleaded guilty to driving while over the limit. The test had shown him to have 59 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

Magistrates banned him from driving for a year, fined him £ 3,334 and ordered him to pay £ 85 costs and a £ 190 Victim Surcharge.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Simon McDonnell said: “Dale Stephens is a premier league footballer and is no doubt looked up to by many football fans and could be considered a role model.

“Unfortunately, on the night of 14 March 2022, he chose to get behind the wheel of a car after he had been drinking more than he is legally allowed to and drive.

“The fact that there were not more serious consequences from his actions is sheer luck. He could have injured or killed someone. He also has a passenger in the car at the time.

“Drinking, even to the legal limit, impairs the driver’s ability to perform and react and is inadvisable. To get behind the wheel of a powerful car when you have drunk more than the legal limit is reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous.

“Mr Stephens may have a glamorous job, but no-one is above the law and he is now facing the consequences of what he chose to do on that night.”