Maybe he can hire Buster to chauffeur him around. Silly man.

"Bates the moron" is an anagram of "Some boner, that!"

Utter doyle. No excuse, especially at his age.

No excuse for drink driving. Awful selfish thing to do.

The judge had seen 'the picture' that sixty four English pounds is for us all.

Is that the part that goes into a pot to help pay victims of crime?

No excuses for it really, the club would be within it's right to get rid. The only thing I'd be asking is if there are personal problems.

Anyone who has been affected by drink driving in some way will find it hard to forgive.

In in last few seasons our coaches/managers have been involved with drink driving, driving over 100mph(?), bankruptcy, shagging other women.....

Hardly setting a great example.

Good job IOR arent still here with their "dont embarrass the club" or whatever it was.

"Don't Get Relegated" was one of their other mantras.....didn't stop them and their staff flirting with it for 7 years, and succeeding twice...

Hignett - speeding
Collins - tabloid scandal
Bates - drink driving

Any others over the last few years?

Sounds like they were waiting for him, stopped him 500 yards from Bar, maybe a phone call from one of the customers.

I'm not convinced that sacking somebody who commits an offence is always the best approach but he's still getting paid as a player isn't he? The world has changed and the standards expected from professional footballers as far as diet and drinking are concerned are way higher than they used to be. Unless he'd been given permission to have a drink I'd say it was a disciplinary matter - how is he going to get back to full playing fitness if he's drinking?

He's retired as player according to the manager.

Bit longer than the last few years but Boydy running bollock naked from some lasses house when her fella caught them.

Completely missed that, thought he was still a player coach. If he has retired then I'd say its been dealt with by the courts and the club should just tell him to make sure it doesn't happen again.

They don't tell us how much over the limit he was. How much does it take to go over the limit? Not enough to be rat-arsed I'm sure.
I'm saying that in the context of keeping fit, not in the driving context for which of course he should be banned.

In the context of wanting to be fit he shouldnt be drinking at all.

But he's a coach now n not a player so its not much of an issue.

I imagine he'd get a bollocking n a warning, he's a hartlepool united employee not just when hes at work, his conduct out of work has to show the club in a good light, this does not.

Couple of pints puts you over the limit depending on your size, what you eat, how long you take to drink it, beer strength etc.

The Gazette says he was more than twice the limit so he probably had at least four or five pints. Possibly not rat-arsed but he had to have known he'd had far too much to drive which explains the long ban for a first offence.

Funny how some papers put details in but the Mail can't quite manage it.

Dan Carter, one of the world's most famous rugby players even if he's no longer the best, got done for DD in Paris last year.
Net result on the sporting front? Bugger all. Unless you call a mild public admonishment from his club significant.

Hang on, I thought we hero worshipped drink drivers at Pools. Especially if their passenger ended up dead.

Gary Coxall, Peter Goldberg, Peter Harris and Stephen Murrall make your list look a bit tame. Were you just on about coaches?

They are people not coaches.

Was he fined more than Rooney in court? He should be fined two weeks wages by the club and the money should go to a worthy cause.

Ah the good old Mail - they say he's a player-coach, so it must be right that he's still available to be picked for the first team. The article doesn't say when the offence occurred, & whether he was a player, caretaker manager, or player-coach at the time.

Does it matter which? You decide

He broke the law, & in theory put other peoples lives at risk. There's no excuse either, but particularly for the latter

What does it say about his competence to own a bar, possibly hold the licence to serve alcohol, & his fitness (!!!) to decide when his customers have had too much to drink?

This. Hopefully he'll get a club fine too, though as a financial penalty that will pale into insignificance alongside 17 months' worth of paying someone else to get him to and from work.

Assuming he stays that long at the football club...

The 36 driver is only on £10.08 an hour so won't cost that much


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He’d need to set off about 5am if he’s getting the 36


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Well I would be sacked at my place of work for this. So Rooney and Bates still employed. Can only assume Bates is not on anywhere near the wages he earned as a player or this would be an excellent opportunity to slash the wage bill. Unless he has an exceptional contract clause.

Hignett couldn't afford to lose his licence as he would lose his job due to the amount of travelling involved. That decision probably helped to our relegation.