ENGLAND football legend Paul Gascoigne avoided jail today despite being caught driving while more than four times the legal alcohol limit.

The former Lazio, Tottenham, Rangers and Newcastle midfielder was given an eight week sentence, suspended for a year, when he appeared at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court today.

He was arrested in the city’s Jesmond suburb when officers spotted him driving an MG erratically on at just after 2.45pm on October 8.

He was found to have 142mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath - the legal limit is 35mg - when he was tested.

Gascoigne, 43, admitted drink-driving at a hearing in October and was warned then that he could be jailed.

But today he was banned from the roads for three years and given an alcohol treatment order.

A separate drink-drive charge, which Gascoigne denies, will be heard next week.