Gazza fails to show for drink-drive sentencing

The sentencing of former footballer Paul Gascoigne for drink-driving has been adjourned after he failed to show up at court.

Newcastle Magistrates' Court was told that Gascoigne had checked himself into a rehab clinic in the south of England.

He had previously admitted driving while more than four times the legal alcohol limit, after being stopped by police in Newcastle on 8 October.

District Judge Stephen Earl adjourned proceedings until 9 December.

He said: "He is not here because he has decided to put himself in for treatment, that's the bit that causes me concern."

"Who's running the show?"

He warned Gascoigne's solicitor that if he failed to show up he would be sentenced without a probation report, or locked up in order to get a report.

"The court will have its process," he added.

Stephen Andrews, defending, said he first became aware of the difficulties about attendance when a meeting, pre-arranged for his Darlington office on Tuesday, did not take place.

"The situation is that I received information through the course of the last 48 hours advising me that Mr Gascoigne has been readmitted into a rehabilitative institution in the south of the country," he said.

"This information came to me via a representative of his management company."

The 43-year-old Tyneside-born former England midfielder is due to stand trial next month for allegedly drinking and driving in North Yorkshire in February, a charge he denies.