George Michael escapes prison term on eve of sell-out concerts

George Michael escaped a jail sentence for drug-driving yesterday as he was given 100 hours community service and banned for driving for two years.

The news has ensured that the singer, who had admitted in an earlier hearing to driving while unfit to do so, was free to perform his two sellout concerts at the newly rebuilt Wembley stadium this weekend. "I am glad to put this behind me," Michael said. "And I am now off to do the biggest show of my life."

As the former Wham! frontman emerged from Brent magistrates' court he attacked the media's reporting of the trial, calling it "farcical", and saying it concentrated "almost entirely on the prosecutor's allegations".

Despite the illegal drugs found in his bloodstream, the pop star said: "In reality I have been sentenced today on the basis of unfit driving through tiredness and prescription medicines, which I fully accept responsibility for."

Speaking for the prosecution, Andrew Torrington described to the court how Michael had been discovered slumped over the wheel of his Mercedes at traffic lights in north London. He revealed that two women travelling in the car behind had become alarmed and called the police when they had seen a vehicle driving erratically and veering onto the wrong side of the road in the early hours of the morning.

Mr Torrington explained: "They described his behaviour as being bewildered, frightened, confused and apparently under the influence, as they described it, of drugs." Following the witnesses' phone call, the 43-year-old was taken to hospital and arrested.

While Michael had freely admitted to having taken prescription drugs, including a sleeping pill, he has continued to deny that the cannabis or the clubbing drug GHB found in his bloodstream were the reasons he was unfit to drive. His defence also claimed there were "legitimate, lawful explanations" why the Class C drug GHB could have been detected in a sample of his blood.

The judge, Katherine Marshall, who also ordered the multimillionaire to pay £2,325 in costs, told the court that she was not sentencing the singer on the possible reasons for his condition that day, but simply on the basis that he was not fit to drive.

She said the risk the pop singer posed to others on the road was "high", and told him, as she issued the two- year driving ban: "Your driving record is not good." Michael had six points on his licence, and had been issued with five fixed-penalty fines in seven years.

Brian Spero, a member of Michael's defence team, told the court of the international star's punishing schedule, which involved three Paris concerts in five days. "It was the first time he had completed such a demanding schedule for 15 years", said Mr Spero, who explained how the singer had just taken a sleeping pill.

Michael, whose real name is George Panayiotou, had been trying to watch a DVD of his own concert in his Highgate home when he discovered his machine was broken. In an attempt to find a player that worked, he decided to drive to one of his other homes in Hampstead.

Mr Spiro said: "He now fully accepts to have got into a car on that occasion given his tiredness, given the medications he had been given, was the wrong, improper thing to do."

Addressing the judge directly yesterday, the pop singer explained why he had spoken of his shame at an earlier hearing. "I'm not ashamed of my behaviour to myself - to me. I was ashamed I had done something really wrong in putting others at risk."

Through his solicitor, Michael offered to accept the community service, assuming it was "appropriate and not in the public eye". The singer suggested low-profile projects such as work with young people or budding musicians, to avoid the humiliation of press coverage.

This weekend's concerts are the first two nights of the singer's "25 Live" European tour.