Olympic hockey star Craig Scott Victory’s excuse for drink driving in BMW
The Olympic hockey star’s extraordinary excuse for why he drunk drove his BMW before getting a hefty fine
- Craig Scott Victory went over the limit three times
- He claimed he escaped marauding teens
A former Australian hockey star gave an extraordinary excuse for exceeding the legal alcohol limit three times, namely that he escaped teen harassment.
Craig Scott Victory, who played 102 games for the Kookaburras, including at the Sydney Olympics, appeared before South Australia’s Elizabeth Magistrates Court this week.
The 43-year-old pleaded guilty to drunk driving and operating an unregistered vehicle in connection with an incident when he was arrested by police on Feb. 9.
The former star striker slept off his drunkenness in his BMW outside the Golden Grove Netball Club, the court heard.
But he claimed to have been suddenly awakened by a group of teenagers throwing rocks and branches at his car.
Former Kookaburras star Craig Scott Victory claimed he was escaping marauding teens on Feb. 9 when he was driving drunk
The 43-year-old pleaded guilty to drunk driving and operating an unregistered vehicle in connection with an incident when he was arrested by South Australian police
The youths then began pushing and rocking his BMW, he told the court, leaving him with no choice but to drive away from the scene, Adelaide now reported.
“There was a group of teenagers who started shaking the car and throwing things at it… I wasn’t planning on driving under the influence of alcohol, I just had to move to a safe place.”
The court heard that SA police saw Victory driving the vehicle as they checked the records only to discover that the car was not registered.
The police also determined that Victory did not have a valid driver’s license.
He returned a BAC of .164, three times the legal limit.
Victory told police he was unaware he had been disqualified and had not eaten that day.
Victory was sleeping off a few drinks at Golden Grove Netball Club (pictured) when he says teens started attacking his car at 2am
He was convicted, fined $1,500 and disqualified from driving for three months by magistrate Edward Stratton-Smith.
Victory won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games.
Victory’s playing career ended in 2006, a year after his jaw was broken following an on-field incident involving Pakistan captain Muhammad Saqlain.
He went on to coach and was an assistant coach of the gold medal-winning Hockey Rose at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.