Clark Carlisle gets three year driving ban for incident days before suicide attempt

A former Premier League footballer who nearly hit a lorry while drink driving in Islington has been banned from driving for three years and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid community work.

Defender Clark Carlisle, who played for Queen’s Park Rangers and Leeds United, was spotted by police swerving his Mercedes and nearly crashing into the delivery lorry in Pentonville Road on December 20.

The incident took place just two days before he jumped into the path of a 12-ton lorry on the A64 near York, Highbury Magistrates’ Court in north London was told.

District judge Susan Williams told Carlisle that, although he had made a “positive contribution” in the world of others in football, that she had to sentence him for the risk he had created in driving “erratically”.

She told Carlisle that “if you are not in control of your vehicle in a road in central London you represent a danger to people”.

Carlisle was ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work within the next 12 months, his licence was endorsed and he was given a three year ban. He was also ordered to pay a £60 surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.

The former Professional Footballers’ Association chairman, who also played for Burnley and Northampton Town, admitted failing to provide a sample.

Carlisle has also previously pleaded guilty to a charge of driving otherwise in accordance with a licence on the same date, when police officers spotted him driving a Mercedes in an “erratic” nature, the court heard.