Lille´s Gervinho gets 15-month suspended term

Lille’s Ivorian international striker Gervinho on Tuesday received a 15-month suspended jail term and was fined 20,000 euros for the repeat offence of driving without a licence.

The court went above the one-year suspended sentence and 15,000-euro fine requested by public prosecutors against Gervinho, whose full name is Gervais Yao Kouassi.

The court was told how the 23-year-old footballer struck a young motorcyclist after running a stop sign on November 27, 2009 while driving his 4×4 home from training at Villeneuve-d’Ascq, near Lille.

The young victim, who is claiming 6,000 euros in damages after slightly injuring his hand, claimed that the player refused to give his details or telephone for help and had tired to buy his silence.

Two days later Gervinho was stopped by police in possession of a fake Ivorian drivers’ licence. He was stopped a third time in April this year, still 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.