Former Premier League footballer Marlon King has been jailed for 18 months for dangerous driving.
The ex Sheffield United striker committed the offence on his 33rd birthday while driving a white 2011 Porsche Panamera. He was driving erratically and eating an ice cream he had bought from a McDonalds just moments before the crash, which happened at around 3pm on April 26.
The former footballer was seen weaving in and out of traffic before he undertook Martin Beck, whom he perceived as travelling too slowly in the outer lane of the A46, King then slammed on his brakes in frustration, forcing Mr Beck to perform an emergency stop in his black VW Polo. As Mr Beck came to a halt, another driver in a silver Vauxhall Astra who had pulled out behind him, smashed into his vehicle. The ‘concertina effect’ forced the Polo into the back of King’s Porsche.
Mr Beck had to be cut out of his car and airlifted to hospital where he spent three weeks in hospital for a fractured and dislocated forearm. Mark Bush, who was travelling in the Astra, was also taken to hospital for cuts and bruises.
King pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving in March. Sentencing King in court on Friday, Recorder Paul Mann QC said:
‘I do not regard your case as merely impulsive or silly behaviour.
‘It was aggressive. It was arrogant.’
The judge handed King 18 months behind bars and a three-year driving ban.