Joey Barton cleared of ignoring legal letters

Nov 13 2009 The Journal

FOOTBALL star Joey Barton was yesterday cleared of deliberately ignoring legal letters from Northumbria Police following an incident in which his car was caught exceeding the 30mph speed limit in a Northumberland village.

The Newcastle United midfielder was recovering from ruptured medial ligaments and wearing a knee brace when his Land Rover was caught on camera doing 39mph on the A69 in Haydon Bridge in the early hours of the morning last December.

He said the injury meant it was impossible for him to have been driving the vehicle at the time – but he was prosecuted for allegedly failing to give police the required information about who was the driver. Yesterday Barton, 27, was found not guilty by magistrates in Bedlington after denying a charge under the Road Traffic Act of failing to provide information as to a driver’s identity.

After deliberating on the evidence for more than an hour, chairman of the bench Joseph Cox said magistrates had decided ‘on the balance of probabilities’ that he never received the initial notice of an intention to prosecute sent to him by Northumbria Police in December last year.

After the case Barton, of Jesmond, Newcastle, who arrived at court in a dark-coloured Aston Martin, said: “I’m just thankful that the court has seen common sense. I’m trying to live my life in the right way now but things like this just drag other things up.” Cuthbert Regan, prosecuting, said after it was established that the vehicle caught speeding in Haydon Bridge belonged to Barton a notice of intention to prosecute was sent to the registered address in Widnes, Cheshire. There was no response so reminder letters were sent to the same address in January and February.

In April – when the fixed penalty unit had still received no response to the three letters – a court summons was issued and again sent to the address in Widnes.

Barton, who is currently recovering from another injury and denied the offence, claims either his father or a friend was driving the Land Rover at the time.