Andy Powell, one of the stars of the Welsh Rugby team was taken into custody by South Wales Police in the early hours of Sunday morning and charged with “driving a mechanically propelled vehicle whilst unfit through drink” under the Road Traffic Act 1988. He was discovered drink driving a stolen golf buggy on the hard shoulder of the M4 just 3 miles from his club’s hotel.
The back-row forward was arrested just before 6am at a motorway service station just three miles from the Vale of Glamorgan Hotel in which his team were staying. Powell had reportedly taken the buggy, capable of just 15mph from outside the hotel in a drunken mission to find food as the hotel did not serve breakfast until 7am.
A Welsh Rugby Union statement read “Powell has been suspended from the squad for behaviour contrary to the squad’s code of conduct”.
Athletes are known for evading driving offences but there is a very real grey area in the circumstances of this arrest as laws for ‘mechanically propelled vehicles’ is not clearly defined. Defence lawyers could argue that although Powell was drunk, there are no strict limits for consumption when operating anything other than a motor vehicle.
Nick Freeman, commonly known as ‘Mr Loophole’ commented that “this could lead to an anomaly where someone is driving a mechanically propelled vehicle, which is not a motor vehicle, whilst over the prescribed limit”.
Freeman stated that “this could lead to an anomaly where someone is driving a mechanically propelled vehicle, which is not a motor vehicle, whilst over the prescribed limit”.
Should the legal grey areas be exploited Powell could avoid prosecution for drink driving and instead face a lesser charge of theft for which he was not originally arrested.
Want to find out more about driving offence lawyers, then visit Mr Loophole’s site on for detailed information on Motoring law for your needs.