Danny Care fined 3,100 pounds for drink-driving on New Year's eve

London, Jan 17 (ANI): Harlequins and England rugby star Danny Care, who was charged with drink-driving in the early hours of New Year's Day, has been fined a total of 3,100 pounds and banned from driving for 16 months.

According to the Southampton Magistrates' Court hearing, the Harlequins scrum-half was stopped at the Winchester services on the M3 motorway in Hampshire in the early hours.

The incident led to the 25-year-old being excluded from the Six Nations squad coming three weeks after he had been fined by police for being drunk and disorderly.

Just hours before his arrest, Care took to his Twitter account to post on his expectations from the new year.

"2012 is hopefully going to be a massive year... Earn respect. Earn the shirt. Set the example," the Daily Mail quoted him as writing.

Care pleaded guilty to the offence of driving with excess alcohol and the court heard that a breath test showed he had 77mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath - the legal limit is 35mg.

Care was fined 3,000 pounds, ordered to pay 85-pound court costs and a 15-pound victim surcharge fee.

Defendant Barry Warburton said that his client had been "compliant" and "totally polite" in his dealings with the police.

He said that losing his licence would have an impact on his ability to do his charitable work and handed a letter of reference to the magistrates from Care's club.

"My client does a considerable amount of charitable work which takes him from his home in Cobham to north London," Warburton said.

"He proposes to continue with his charity work but proposes to use public transport.

"He has been fined 10,000 pounds by his club, which takes this very seriously, and he takes this very seriously, he is very contrite and shows a considerable amount of remorse.

The court heard that Care already had three points on his licence for texting on his mobile phone while driving and six points for speeding.

Care was required to donate the fine charged by his club in person to a cancer charity.

He will also be required to work on its inner-city coaching programme until the end of pre-season 2012/13. (ANI)