Harry Redknapp’s eldest son Mark files into Poole Magistrates’ Court today where he was found guilty of driving while high on cocaine
The eldest son of Harry Redknapp was today found guilty of driving while high on cocaine despite claiming police picked on him because of the ‘droopy eyes’ he inherited from his football manager father.
Mark Redknapp, 49, was 15 times over the drug-drive limit in Poole on April 2 last year – two nights after he was thought to have taken the class A drug.
Redknapp, the older brother of ex-Tottenham and England footballer Jamie, 46, sat with his head in his hands as the guilty verdict was delivered at the town’s magistrates’ court.
He has been fined £5,000 and banned from the road for three years today.
The day before he was caught the father-of-four had taken part in an Easter egg hunt for his children at his parents’ luxury home on exclusive Sandbanks, Dorset.
A test found he had 749 micrograms of the cocaine derivative benzoylecgonine in his blood – 15 times over the legal limit for driving.
But an expert said the test result could have been a ‘false positive’ after officers waited longer than eight minutes before checking the sample.
Mr Redknapp told Poole magistrates’ court: ‘I have a hereditary problem with my eyes.
‘I have had to have an operation on my eyes. I have heavy eyes, my father does. It is an everyday thing for me.’
Despite his explanation, district judge Stephen Nichols today found Redknapp guilty of driving a vehicle while over the specified drug limit.
He told him he rejected his version of events and was sure he had consumed cocaine.
Judge Nichols told him: ‘I am satisfied that I am sure that Mr Redknapp did consume cocaine. I reject his evidence that he did not use cocaine.
‘The court is therefore certain that Mr Redknapp is guilty of the offence of driving a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs.’
Mark Redknapp, 49, (left, outside court today) said he was tested for drugs after being pulled over in Poole on April 2 last year because of his ‘droopy eyes’ which he inherited from his father (right, appearing on TV in June)
Mark Redknapp (right) pictured with his mother Sandra and his younger brother Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp (middle)
The officers who stopped Redknapp noticed he was licking his lips and poking his tongue out between his teeth.
He told the court this was down to nervousness.
‘Same as anyone sat in the back of a police car, you’re nervous,’ he said. ‘When your mouth is dry, that happens to most people. I’m in a position where I shouldn’t be and I was anxious.
‘Why am I in this situation now, why I am getting questioned for something I have not done?’
Redknapp’s wife of 12 years, Lucy, 38, backed up her husband’s assertion and said the condition ‘got worse’ when he was tired.
An expert toxicologist told the court the roadside swab carried out on Mr Redknapp was not checked by police after the recommended eight minutes when it was negative.
When it was checked at 12 minutes red lines indicating a positive result had appeared.
Dr Gavin Trotter said: ‘If you read the test before eight minutes you might get a false negative.
‘After that point more of the sample may have flowed to the area of the device that is analysed and therefore you could get a false positive.
‘Red test lines indicate a positive test and there were none after eight minutes in this case.’
Former football manager Harry Redknapp with his wife Sandra and sons Jamie Redknapp (middle) and Mark Redknapp (far right) after a Christmas lunch in Dorset by Mark’s wife Lucy
Dr Trotter also said that droopy eyes were not a sign of cocaine use.
Harry Redknapp at Spurs v Aston Villa at Villa Park in December 2010
The defendant claimed one of the officers started talking to him about football after he was pulled over, but the other one ‘took a disliking to me’.
‘The gentleman, that police officer, got out of the car and asked my name and asked if I knew why I had been pulled over and I agreed I had been on the telephone,’ he told the court.
‘Then I was asked to get into the back of the police car. He started talking about my father, about football, about what he was up to these days. I got in the back of the police car and was given a warning.
‘The lady officer for some reason took a disliking to me, I do not know why. The gentleman was very pleasant, he was talking to me about football. She went to the back of the car and got out what I now know to be a swab.’
Mr Redknapp’s wife Lucy told the court that her husband was ‘a trustworthy gentleman’ and she did not believe he had taken drugs.
She said: ‘Mark is my husband, we have been married for 12 years and together for 14. I know his character well.
‘Mark has played football professionally in the past and tries to look after himself. He runs for one hour in the park every day’.
She said her husband does not go out much and on March 31 his friends visited their house to watch boxing.
‘I told him not to stay up too late as we were going to his parents for an Easter egg hunt the next day’, she said.
‘Mark does not associate with people who do drugs, he has a close group of friends who have a similar lifestyle to him.
‘On April 2 Mark’s eyes were no different to any other day. He has baggy eyes like his father. It is hereditary and it seems our boys have inherited the same condition.
‘Mark is a trustworthy gentleman who cares for his family very much. I do not believe Mark took drugs.
‘He was not acting in an unusual way and if he had I would have called his mum.’
Jamie Redknapp (left) with Frank Lampard (centre) and Mark Redknapp (right) at the opening of Zooma Kiddies pampering paradise near Bournemouth
From left to right: Mark Redknapp, Mark’s wife Lucy Redknapp, ex-wife of Jamie, Louise Redknapp, Sandra Redknapp, Harry Redknapp, Jamie Redknapp and Frank Lampard at the opening of Zooma Kiddies pampering paradise near Bournemouth
Redknapp told how he was handcuffed and taken to Bournemouth police station, where he said around 20 police officers watched him being brought in.
The defendant went on to allege that his blood was taken without consent, even though he was terrified of needles and had fainted on a previous occasion where blood was taken.
Redknapp also said he was subjected to a strip-search, which he found ‘very humiliating.’
The defendant had been leaving his parents’ home in Sandbanks before he was stopped, the court was told.
An ex-England rugby player spoke at the trail to say Redknapp had not been exhibiting any signs of drug taking on the Saturday before his arrest.
Paul Sackey, an ambassador for the Wasps rugby club and a former England player, told the district judge: ‘I met Mark through his brother Jamie. Jamie and I had the same agent. I used to be a professional rugby player and am the godfather to Mark’s sons.
‘We played football and rugby in the garden for a bit and we had a Chinese takeaway at Mark’s house. We watched Match of the Day and the boxing.
‘It was a normal Saturday evening in the Redknapp household. To my knowledge, no-one was taking drugs.
‘I had no suspicion Mark did take any drugs, there were no signs such as going to the toilet multiple times. I would be shocked if Mark did take drugs. He didn’t seem to be taking drugs, he was just his normal, bubbly self.
‘Neither Mark, nor his friends, have ever taken drugs in my company,’ he said in a statement.’
The court heard that Ali McGivney, who worked as a consultant for Redknapp’s property development company, Pier Front Developments, had also attended the Redknapp household, where Redknapp lived with his wife Lucy.
Mr McGivney said: ‘I am absolutely certain that there were no drugs being consumed at Mr Redknapp’s house. Our social-circle is very much anti-drugs.
‘His family have been the subject of gossip and rumour.’
Redknapp denied charge of driving a vehicle while over the specified drug limit.