Reggae Boy Kemar Roofe has been cleared of careless driving but fined by a Scottish court after he admitted driving without an MOT (Ministry of Transport test) and a fixed licence plate on his car.
The 30-year-old committed the offence in Glasgow’s Govan district on March 18, 2021, just 12 days after his Scottish club Rangers clinched their 55th league title.
Roofe, who joined the Ibrox side from Belgian outfit Anderlecht in 2020, was driving a black Porsche 911 when he was stopped by police regarding another matter, the court heard. Roofe was found to have required an MOT two months before he was pulled over.
His licence plate was put on the front windscreen after it had fallen off. Roofe appeared in the dock on Monday when he pleaded guilty at Glasgow’s sheriff court to the two charges.
Justice of the Peace Colin Marchment fined Roofe a total of £420 (US$510). He told the Jamaica international: “Let’s hope we don’t find you back in court again.”
A not guilty plea was accepted by the Crown for two charges of not having the correct details on his licence and having an out-of-date address on it. A trial took place in which Roofe, of Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, was charged with careless driving at the same time and place.
Constable Adam Gray, 30, told the trial that he was in uniform in an unmarked police car at 11.50 p.m. Prosecutor Gail Campbell asked what was brought to Gray’s attention.
He said: “We were carrying out an area search for someone unrelated to this matter and I was undertaken by a Porsche 911.” Campbell later asked when the officer was first aware of the vehicle. Gray replied: “As it passed me.”
The officer went on to claim that Roofe’s vehicle went from the inside lane into the outside lane where his vehicle was positioned. Gray said Roofe’s car undertook “two or three” vehicles that were ahead of his police car to enter the lane.
The officer added that the vehicles had to brake “harshly”. Campbell asked what would have happened if the cars did not brake.
Gray replied: “There would have been a collision.”
Michael Lyons, defending, put the officer’s police statement to him.
It read: “At that time, the Porsche was travelling in front of me in the same lane as me. I could see there were three cars travelling in front of me.”
Lyons asked: “Why did you say two completely different things? In your statement you said that he was in front of you when you became aware of the car.”
Gray: “I made a mistake, it was two years ago, I made a mistake that the vehicle undertook me – what’s in my statement is right.”
Lyons said: “You know what it might be – a fabrication, a lie under oath.”
Gray replied: “I made a mistake.”
The court adjourned for 10 minutes before Campbell withdrew the careless driving charge.
Kemar Roofe, who turned 30 last Friday, has been plagued by injury this season, but on Sunday ended a two-month-plus spell on the side lines by coming on as a 78th-minute substitute in second-placed Rangers’ 2-0 Scottish Premiership win at Dundee United.
Roofe, yet to score this season, had last played for Rangers in a 1-1 league draw against Livingston on October 22.
CMC/
