Lille striker Gervinho has been given a 15-month suspended jail senstence and was fined 20,000 euros for the repeat offence of driving without a licence.
The court was told how the 23-year-old footballer struck a young motorcyclist after ignoring a red light on November 27, 2009 while driving home from training at Villeneuve-d’Ascq, near Lille.
The young victim, who is claiming 6,000 euros in damages after injuring his hand, claimed that the player refused to give his details or telephone for help and had tried to buy his silence.
Two days later Gervinho was stopped by police in possession of a fake Ivory Coast drivers’ licence. He was stopped a third time in April this year without a valid driving licence.
Gervinho missed the first hearing in June because of the World Cup, but appeared in court on October 12. He claimed he had not realised that his licence was fake and insisted that he was registered in a driving school to pass his test.
