Raheem Sterling appears in court on driving charges

Raheem Sterling arrived at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court to face charges of dangerous driving, possession of nitrous oxide for wrongful inhalation and failing to provide a specimen, over a crash on the M3 southbound near the Minley interchange on 28 May.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said the incident involved a single vehicle, with no other cars affected and no injuries reported. Footage obtained by the Daily Mail appeared to show a black Lamborghini, reportedly worth £270,000, swerving across three lanes shortly before 9am as other traffic moved out of the way. The driver seen in that footage appeared to be inhaling from a balloon, a method associated with nitrous oxide, sometimes known as "hippy crack". Minutes later the vehicle struck the motorway barriers, and police said Sterling would not provide a specimen after his arrest, which led to the third charge.

Sterling, 31, arrived at court wearing black trousers, black shoes and a dark top. His route through England took him from the QPR academy to Liverpool, where he made his senior debut, then to Manchester City in 2015, where he won four Premier League titles, five League Cups and the FA Cup in 2019. He left City for Chelsea in 2022, fell out of favour there and spent the 2024-25 season on loan at Arsenal before his move to Feyenoord.

For England he scored 20 goals in 82 caps, featuring in Gareth Southgate's squads that reached the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and the Euro 2020 final. He was made an MBE in the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours for Services to racial equality in sport, at a time when England fans booed players taking the knee before matches. After his initial arrest in May, his representative said Sterling had been made to feel "worthless" and "forgotten about" in recent years.