By CAITLIN LENG
Published: | Updated:
Former Arsenal and Liverpool footballer Jermaine Pennant has swerved a driving ban after admitting getting behind the wheel without insurance.
Pennant - who retired from the sport professionally in 2018 - was handed a six-month conditional discharge after a judge found he had special reasons as to why he should not be disqualified.
On Monday, Highbury Magistrates' Court heard how the 43-year-old ex-winger was pulled over by police on September 2, 2025 and captured on body-worn camera footage appearing to purchase insurance on his phone while in the car.
The TalkSport host told district judge Vanessa Lloyd cover on his Audi A5 S Line had expired the day before the incident, which occurred while he was headed eastbound on the A406.
He said he had been shopping around for a new policy when his partner, who had injured her foot, called to ask him to drive her home.
Pennant told the court: 'The next day, her foot was swelled to the point where we had to take her to hospital, and they said, 'Yes, you've broken your foot and three toes'.'
He claimed he had purchased one-day insurance 10 minutes before being pulled over, but had not realised it would not take effect immediately.
Former Arsenal player Jermaine Pennant has avoided a driving ban after admitting getting behind the wheel without insurance (Pictured playing for Arsenal in 2000)
Pennant was handed a conditional discharge after a judge found he had special reasons as to why he should not be disqualified from driving (Pictured playing for Liverpool in 2008)
Pennant was captured on police body-worn camera footage appearing to purchase insurance on his phone while in his car. (Pennant is pictured here during the UEFA European U21 Championship Qualifying match between England and Wales)
Prosecutor Deborah Kol put to Pennant body-worn footage appeared to show him purchasing the insurance in the car, but he insisted he had been trying to open the insurance app to show officers he had cover.
'I wasn't purchasing anything. I was trying to get the insurance up, that's what I was trying to get up to show,' he said.
Pennant, who had previously denied the offence, said he changed his plea once the insurance company explained to him the policy did not activate immediately.
He told the court he had 'messed up by 10 minutes' but understood 'rules are rules'.
Judge Lloyd said Pennant would not have points added to his driving licence on the basis he was 'misled' by his insurance app and that he believed the policy would take effect immediately.
The six-month conditional discharge means the former footballer and pundit avoids a driving ban and will not be fined, but he was ordered to pay a £26 victim surcharge.
It comes more than 20 years after he served a one-month prison sentence for a drink-driving conviction.
Pennant was arrested in January 2005 after he was spotted in a car park in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, driving a Mercedes with a lamppost dragging beneath it.
He served one third of a three-month sentence at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes for drink-driving, driving while banned and using a vehicle without insurance.
The then 22-year-old became the first Premier League footballer to play a match wearing an electronic tag when he appeared for Birmingham City 48 hours after his release.