Former Manchester United star Brandon Williams has been spared jail for dangerous driving that saw him cause a crash after speeding at 99mph with a nitrous oxide balloon in his mouth.
The 24-year-old defender was given a 14-month sentence, suspended for two years, along with a three-year driving ban and an order to do 180 hours of community service.
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Chester Magistrates’ Court heard that Williams, who appeared in the dock wearing a black suit and tie supported by his parents in the public gallery, had been injured at the time of the offence and suffering from depression.
His contract with Manchester United ended in June last year and Williams, who also had a loan spell at Ipswich Town, is currently without a club.
Recorder Eric Lamb said the Manchester-born defender was “seen to have a yellow balloon” in his mouth, as did his female passenger, before the collision in August 2023.
But he added that the prosecution “did not suggest” that Williams was affected by nitrous oxide at the time of the incident.
Williams, who was also uninsured, admitted a charge of dangerous driving at a previous hearing in March.
Richard Littler, defending, said the player’s attitude is “of shame and regret”. He added: “The probation officer in this report described him as a young man who presents as someone genuine in his realisation of the gravity of his actions. He told him it was underpinned by lack of maturity, stupidity and trying to be ostentatious.
“He told the probation officer: “I was driving like an idiot in excess of the speed limit and showing off”. He believed he had insurance but he didn’t.”
The court heard that Williams had initially driven dangerously close behind another motorist at speed before swerving into the outside lane to overtake her, and then done it again, speeding up and then breaking heavily behind another car on the A34 near Wilmslow in Cheshire.
When he tried to overtake the second car, a Ford Fiesta which contained three passengers, his Audi A3 clipped its rear driver side before crashing into the central reservation.
The passengers in the Fiesta, which was spun around and had to be written-off, suffered seatbelt and whiplash injuries and have since felt anxious returning to the road.
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Witnesses said both Williams and the passenger had balloons in their mouths. “He has used nitrous oxide as a recreational drug when he was younger,” said Littler. “But was not at the time. He was assisting the other passenger in the car in using it”
Later one of the women in the Fiesta, according to the prosecutor Max Saffman, “said she felt like she was going to be killed” during the collision.
Since the crash Williams has been working with coaches to improve his mental and physical well-being, the court heard, and “hopefully get a contract at another football club later this year”.
“The pre-sentence report makes apparent what was going on in your life at the time,” said Lamb. “The onset of physical injury and the consequence of physical injury taking you from a young man who had, as a result of being a young professional footballer, got too much, too soon as a young player. You went from that to a situation where you were beset from depression and you had isolated yourself.
“It is in that period of depression that you committed this offence and all the information available to me indicated that since then you have taken steps to rehabilitate yourself.
“You have taken the approach advised, applied yourself to the help that is available to you and furthermore there is a different side to your character as demonstrated by the charitable work you have done for [homeless charity] Shelter and the steps you have taken to assist your sister with your nephew, looking after him and his special needs at the time you are actively looking to re-enter the world of professional football.”
He added that Williams, who has two previous driving bans, “does not put forward any excuse” for the way he drove and “you are now deeply and genuinely remorseful for what you did”.
He will have to re-take an extended driving test before he is allowed to drive again.
(Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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