Suspended Sentence Puts Doherty One Offence From Jail Term

Oct 27, 08:13 AM

Current Headlines: By Ciar Byrne Arts; Media Correspondent

The threat of prison loomed over the troubled rock singer Pete Doherty yesterday when he was given a suspended jail sentence for a string of drugs and motoring offences.

The Babyshambles frontman was given a four-month custodial sentence suspended for two years. District Judge Davinder Lachhar also gave him an 18-month supervision order and a 12-month drug rehabilitation order at West London magistrates' court in Hammersmith. She also ordered that the singer pay a GBP400 fine for driving with no insurance and a GBP75 fine for having no MOT certificate.

The self-destructive former boyfriend of the model Kate Moss has been arrested by the police for drugs offences on so many occasions that his record company, Rough Trade, suggested that he was the subject of police harassment. The Metropolitan Police countered that the reason he kept drawing their attention was that he continues to commit offences.

On the latest occasion, Doherty, 28, a drug addict, had pleaded guilty to possession of crack cocaine, heroin, ketamine and cannabis, as well as to a number of driving offences, after being arrested by police while driving a Jaguar in High Street Kensington, west London, at about 10pm on 5 May. Officers had found the substances on his person and in the car.

Fans of Doherty packed the public gallery and cheered him as he left the court. Asked if he was pleased at the outcome, Doherty replied: "Eh, you must be joking."

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