Barton cleared of traffic offence
NEWCASTLE United midfielder Joey Barton has been cleared of deliberately ignoring legal letters sent out by Northumbria Police after his car was caught exceeding the 30mph speed limit in a Northumberland village.
Barton, 27, was not behind the wheel of the Land Rover when it was caught on camera doing 39mph on the A69 in Haydon Bridge in the early hours last December.
He was charged under the Road Traffic Act with failing to provide the required information to police about the identity of the driver - but was found not guilty by magistrates in Bedlington after denying the offence.
The court heard that Barton failed to respond to four letters, which were sent to his previous address in Widnes, Cheshire, until May this year.
But magistrates accepted his claim that he only ever received one of the letters, which he immediately passed on to his solicitor to be acted upon.
Barton, of Jesmond, Newcastle, told the court he had acted as soon as he received the letter, and denied simply ignoring the correspondence.
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