Don't Cry For Me

Carlos Tevez - the Manchester City striker - was given 250 hours of community service recently after pleading guilty in court to driving while disqualified and without any insurance.

The little Argentinian was also hit with a fine of £1,060 - which must feel like chickenfeed on his film-star salary - and given a further six month driving ban for his troubles

But I don't think you can really quibble about the sentence - even though by pleading guilty he faced the possibility of a jail term for his reckless behaviour.

Seems to me that serving his punishment in the community and in public - is a better way of dealing with this kind of offence. 

The Sun newspaper with its penchant for catchy strap lines - ran the story on its front page under the heading - 'Don't Cry For Me Argie Cleaner' - in anticipation of Tevez being required to do some manual work like sweeping up the streets.

Which is quite funny you have to admit - though not as good as my all-time favourite - 'Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious' - which some bright spark thought up when the little Inverness club (Caledonian Thistle) knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup several years ago.

But back to Carlos Tevez whose lawyer had an unusual line of argument in court - which was that the football player had already served a significant portion of a previous driving ban when he was arrested last month. 

Presumably this was suggesting that Tevez should be given some credit for serving out some of his previous ban without getting into trouble - which is as ridiculous as it sounds.

More likely that he had driven before and that the latest incident was simply the first time he had been caught at the wheel - because being banned for speeding and then banned again for driving while banned (and without any insurance) is the behaviour of an idiot.

So let's hope he's finally learned his lesson.