Drunk football fan who threatened to knock out policemen at West Brom game given banning order

Barnsley fan Aaron Clarke was arrested during the final match of the Sky Bet Championship last season that saw his team relegated to EFL League One.

During the 4-0 defeat of his team Clarke, 20, was threatening to stewards and then struggled with policemen telling them he would "knock them out" as they arrested him.

The apprentice plasterer failed to turn up for his trial at Walsall Magistrates' Court and was found guilty in his absence for being drunk in a designated sports ground and for an offence of harassment.

Clarke was sentenced at Barnsley Magistrates' Court today and was fined £500 and handed a three year banning order from all football grounds.

He told the court: "I messed up. I was intoxicated, it was the last game of the season and I thought I was being funny but I took it too far and I'm sorry. I have no previous convictions. I regret what happened."

Clarke had travelled from Yorkshire to West Bromwich in a minibus with friends and had consumed between 10 and 15 cans of Stella Artois on the journey.

He claimed he rarely went to watch Barnsley and when he did he normally only had "a few pints" before the game.

Clarke, of Thurnscoe, Barnsley, will not be able to go within one mile of Barnsley's ground Oakwell on match days or attend any matches in grounds across the country for the next three years. He will also have to surrender his passport to a police station during some matches abroad.

Magistrates told Clarke, who did not have a solicitor representing him because he could not afford one, breaching the football banning order "would be a serious offence".

He was fined £250 for each offence, ordered to pay £85 costs and a victim surcharge of £34.