VIDEO Ipswich Town legend Alan Brazil has been banned from the road for 20 months after being found guilty of drink-driving.

Dave Gooderham

IPSWICH Town legend Alan Brazil has been banned from the road for 20 months after being found guilty of drink-driving.

The former Scottish international footballer denied the charge but was convicted by Sudbury magistrates today.

He was also fined £750 and told to pay £455 prosecution costs.

The court heard Brazil, 48. was found to be more than twice the legal drink-drive limit when he was stopped by police.

Magistrates at Sudbury watched a police DVD of Brazil trying to provide a breath sample at Bury St Edmunds police station.

He was seen complaining about the quality of policing and also about the length of time the process was taking.

And Suffolk police officer Simon Hughes is also heard agreeing with him talking about a distinct lack of police officers in the county.

Brazil who now hosts a radio show on TalkSPORT, was heard to say: “This is why there's no coppers on the street now because of all this crap with respect.

"I do it on my radio show all the time. I am not trying to make light of the situation but why do you have to go through all this? It's crazy.”

Pc Hughes told him: "To be fair it does not help. There is a distinct lack of police officers. It's crazy.

"Me and my colleague are a county-wide resource. We go all over the place.

"Every day we will get a phone call from another area saying can you help us out. Every time we go on duty.”

As Brazil makes a number of other unsuccessful attempts to give a breath sample Pc Hughes then informs him that he may have to stay in a cell if the test is positive.

Brazil replies: "Oh no. Please! Incredible.

"Paedophiles get what? Three months? Then come out and I am going to get banged up for a couple of hours. With the greatest of respect the law's an ass.

"It's all wrong. I have had a bottle of wine. If I am over I am over. I will lose my licence. I have no problem with that. I am an idiot for not staying over.”

At the opening of his trial this morning , it was said Brazil failed to register the necessary amount of breath on three separate occasions during roadside tests and then five times at Bury St Edmunds police station.

But he later provided a positive sample - with 77 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Brazil, of Lower Raydon, near Hadleigh, was stopped on the A14 at Woolpit, near Bury St Edmunds, on September 16 last year.

The court heard he had been driving his BMW X5 between 50 to 55mph in the early hours of the morning when police stopped him after they noticed he was failing to maintain a straight course along the main road.

Brazil initially said he had only had two-and-a-half glasses of wine about two hours before he was stopped but later admitted in police interview that he had drunk a bottle of wine.

During the interview, which was shown to the court, Brazil apologised for being over the drink-drive limit and admitted he had not eaten for a while but was not drunk.

Gary Bromelow, defending Brazil, claimed his client was only stopped because he was travelling too slow along the 70mph A14 and questioned whether the evidential breathalyser machine inside the police station had been working properly.