19/02/2010
News of Welsh Rugby international Andy Powell’s having been apprehended in a state of advanced inebriation at the helm of a stolen luxury golf buggy at a service station on the M4 in the early hours of Sunday morning following the team’s dramatic win against Scotland was broken with barely suppressed mirth during TV coverage of England-Italy later that day.
Since then the world has been busy reminding itself to take a suitably grave view of a serious driving offence – one whose gravity can only be compounded if we are to believe claims in the Daily Mail (who recently featured an arresting photographic image of a trouserless and disheveled Mr Powell draped cocquettishly across a leather banquette at a Cardiff club on Saturday night) that a pair of black underpants belonging to Mr Powell were later found aboard the buggy – now impounded by local police.
Acting in an appropriately censorious fashion clearly comes easier to some than others. Road safety charity Brake had no problem keeping a straight face in declaring: “Brake applauds the Wales management team for removing Powell from the team and sending a clear message to supporters of Welsh rugby, many of whom will have seen Powell as a role model.”
Welsh Rugby Union said Powell’s behavior was “contrary to the squad’s code of conduct” – clearly quite a detailed document.
Powell (aka Keith Lemon) is now due to appear at Cardiff Magistrates on March 2 charged with driving a mechanically propelled vehicle whilst unfit through drink. The identity of Powell’s passenger at the time of the incident remains a mystery.
The BBC has published a helpful guide to possible legal loopholes his defence team may wish to explore and a facebook group severely censoring Powell’s actions had attracted more than 100,000 fans when Bankstone News went to press.
Share