Jail term and driving ban for King

FOOTBALLER Marlon King has been jailed for 18 months for dangerous driving after a crash which left a motorist with a broken arm.

The striker, currently without a club after being released by Sheffield United last year, had pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving at Nottingham Crown Court in March.

Sentencing King at the same court today, Recorder Paul Mann QC said: "I do not regard your case as merely impulsive or silly behaviour.

"It was aggressive. It was arrogant."

The court heard King had been eating an ice cream at the wheel when he caused a three-car pile up on the A46 in Nottinghamshire last April.

The judge also handed King a three-year driving ban.

The court heard that King committed the offence on his 33rd birthday while driving a white 2011 Porsche Panamera.

King 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, the court heard.

The former footballer slammed on his brakes in frustration, forcing Beck to perform an emergency stop in his black VW Polo.

As Beck came to a halt, another driver in a silver Vauxhall Astra who had pulled out behind him, collided with the stationary Polo.

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 after the collision at Winthorpe, near Newark. He spent three weeks in hospital and required surgery for a fractured and dislocated forearm.

Mark Bush, who was travelling in the Astra, was also taken to hospital for cuts and bruises.

The court heard that King drove off from the scene but was flagged down by another motorist who feared Beck had been killed by the collision.

King returned to Beck's car, where he blamed the driver for the collision.

The judge told King: "You were so pumped up with road rage, you had to start accusing him of being to blame for these collisions".

The judge said: "You tailgated him (Beck) for some little while. He touched his brakes in the hope you would pull back but you didn't.

"Mr Beck saw an opportunity to get out of your way and he started to do so but you aggressively undertook him.

"The road ahead was clear for you. You could have sped away. Instead you decided to pull out in front of him. You slowed down, applied your brakes considerably.

"Mr Beck was forced to perform an emergency stop."

In mitigation Charles Langley, defending, told the court King admitted he had been "frustrated" with Beck's driving.

He said King was "genuinely remourseful" for the incident and the injuries caused to Beck and Bush.

Appealing to the judge to consider a community order or a suspended sentence, Langley said: "It was dangerous. He should never had done it and he accepts that and he is genuinely remorseful."

The court heard King, of Torkey, Lincolnshire, had been planning to move with his wife and children over to Zambia in August, where her mother runs a guest house.

The judge told King: "Your offences and the consquences are too serious to merit anything other than a custodial sentence.

He added: "I do not regard your case as merely impulsive or silly behaviour.

"It was aggressive. It was arrogant.

"You forcing Mr Beck to stop in the outer lane on a fast and busy dual carriageway on a Friday afternoon is little short of madness.

"The collisions and injuries that followed were forseeable if not inevitable".

King was jailed for 18 months and told he would serve half that before being considered for parole.

By Press Association reporters