Its fair to say that in recent years Shaun Newtons career hasn't gone exactly as he'd of liked. Once seen as a one of the greatest bargain signings of recent times (after his move from Wolves to West Ham for an initial fee of just £10,000 in 2005) the Londoner has seen his value drop to almost nothing after being hit by two separate brushes with the law. Indeed at the time of writing he is without a club.
His first offence was his infamous drug test failure, his cocaine problem being widely reported. His second offence passed under the radar somewhat more. This time he took money from Teddy Sheringham and Bobby Zamora to get rid of speeding tickets for them. His method for doing so was to give the tickets to a friend who then provided fake names and addresses of drivers who were then reported as being behind the wheel of the vehicles when the offences were committed (although Newton claimed he thought his friend was dealing with the tickets legitimately.)
Sadly Newton's scam was eventually rumbled, resulting in a 28-week suspended prison sentence, 180 hours of unpaid community service, a 12-month driving ban and an order to pay £5,000 in legal costs.
It's safe to assume that after this bruising treatment from the judicial system the ex-Hammer realised his scam wasn't quite the golden ticket he'd been looking for! HA! TICKET! I've literally spent the last five months thinking up that joke.
