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'You can't even stand up': Footage of Dean Saunders arrest emerges as ex-footballer released from prison

Officers tell former Liverpool striker 'your driving is atrocious' after pulling pundit over his Audi

Tim Wyatt
Friday 30 August 2019 11:57 BST
Dean Saunders drink driving arrest

Police bodycam footage shows how officers accused the former footballer Dean Saunders of being so drunk he could not even stand up as they pulled him over for erratic driving earlier this year.

Footage of the moment Saunders was detained on the side of the road has been released by Crown Prosecution Service.

The former Liverpool striker and TV pundit was jailed for ten days on Wednesday for refusing to provide a breathalyser sample to the police.

District Judge Nicholas Sanders told the 55-year-old he had shown himself to be “arrogant, thinking you are someone whose previous and current role in the public eye entitles you to be above the law”.

But after spending just one night behind bars, Saunders has been released on bail while he appeals against the sentence, which is due to be heard in October.

He initially denied the charges but later changed his plea to guilty shortly before the trial was due to begin. The maximum sentence for the offence is six months in prison.

The bodycam video shows an officer rushing to the door of the ex-footballer’s Audi in Chester and ordering Mr Saunders to get out of the car and give him the car keys.

“Your driving is atrocious, have you had any alcohol?”, the officer asks. Mr Saunders replies he has had “one pint”.

As he is led to the police car the officer exclaims “You can’t even stand up!” but Mr Saunders insists he is fine.

“Why are you saying I can’t stand up?” he can be seen to retort, but is brusquely ordered to get into the back of the vehicle.

Police pulled him over after he was seen swerving across the road, narrowly missing oncoming traffic and hitting the kerb.

Later, the footage shows Mr Saunders back at a police station, arguing with officers about providing a breathalyser sample.

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Several times the 55-year-old is warned he will be charged with an offence if he does not provide a sample now, but Mr Saunders insists he will first wait for his solicitor.

“Am I doing the right thing, or am I getting myself in more trouble for not doing it?” he asks one officer.

“I haven’t consistently refused to do anything,” he adds, after another officer explained he had been warned verbally and in writing that he was breaking the law by not immediately providing a breathalyser sample.

Later, Mr Saunders claimed to magistrates he had drunk two pints while at Chester Races, which may have “interacted” with his medication for old football injuries to his knees and his asthma inhaler.

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