Former England captain Paul Ince has been banned from driving for the next 12 months and fined in excess of £7,000 ($9,400) after admitting to driving while over the alcohol limit.
The West Ham United academy graduate established himself as one of the country’s best midfielders at the heart of Sir Alex Ferguson’s first great Manchester United side in the early 1990s. The enigmatic character spent two successful years at Inter before return to England with Liverpool. After spells at Middlesbrough. Wolverhampton Wanderers, Swindon Town and Macclesfield, Ince embarked upon a sporadic coaching career which has thus far failed to replicate the heights of his playing days.
On June 28, police revealed that Ince had been arrested after a black Range Rover “collided with the central reservation barrier” at 5 p.m. BST on Saturday on Chester High Road in Cheshire, northwestern England.
Having been released on bail, Ince admitted to driving while over the limit and was banned for a year. The 57-year-old was also fined £5,000 ($6,700) and ordered to pay a £2,000 ($2,700) statutory surcharge plus £85 ($114) in costs.
District judge Jack McGarva told Ince: “The message has got to be if you’re going to drive, you don’t drink at all.”
Ince appeared to be in high spirits despite the ruling, posing for pictures and signing an autograph with a broad smile across his face. After anchoring Manchester United’s midfield to a maiden Premier League title in 1993, Ince was handed the captain’s armband at international level, becoming the first Black man to ever skipper England—a feat he later hailed as “the pinnacle of my career”.
During the 1993–94 campaign, a beautifully balanced midfield pairing of Ince and Roy Keane powered Manchester United to a Premier League-FA Cup double. United led the league table for a suffocatingly dominant 262 days out of a possible 268.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Former England, Man Utd Captain Paul Ince Given Drink-Driving Ban and Fine.
