George Michael George Michael has been sentenced to eight weeks in prison, after he admitted crashing his car under the influence of cannabis. The Guardian reports the 47-year-old was fined £1,250 and banned from driving for five years. He will serve four weeks of the sentence. He was arrested in July after crashing his Range Rover into a branch of a photo printing business in the early hours of the morning, in Hampstead, north London. Today, district judge John Perkins told Michael that on the night of the crash he had taken a "dangerous and unpredictable mix" of prescription drugs and cannabis. He said he had taken into account the fact that the singer had checked himself into rehab immediately after the accident, his remorse, and his work for charity. But after Michael's previous conviction of driving while unfit through drugs in 2006, a jail term was inevitable, he said. The Guardian says the singer released an audible sigh as Perkins passed sentence and glanced at those sitting in the court. As he was told prison was unavoidable, his longterm partner, Kenny Goss, sitting at the back of the court, put his head in his hands. Michael's barrister said his client felt "profound shame and horror" after the accident. He also told the judge that, after a long period in the creative wilderness, Michael had begun writing again. "His creativity, so long hampered by his drug dependence, is re-emerging." Fans who turned out to support him were kept back by a barrier, after he was swamped by a crowd when at court last month. Michael has been cautioned on a number of occasions for possessing drugs, questioned over several minor accidents, and infamously fined for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet in California. Read more from The Guardian here
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 15th September 2010 - 10:52am