Champion jockey Oisin Murphy from Lambourn sentenced for drink-drive crash drama

A champion jockey has been fined £70,000 and banned from the roads for crashing his car after drinking almost twice the legal limit.

Police found Oisin Murphy at a crash scene with a young companion injured on the ground after the Mercedes A Class he was driving careered into a tree.

Richard Atkins, prosecuting at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, July 3, said: “In police language, there was a single vehicle road traffic collision in Marlston Road, Hermitage.

“The Mercedes had parted from the road and struck a tree.

“Officers attended just before midnight and found Mr Murphy speaking on his mobile phone to his cousin.

“One other person – a young friend who was the owner of the car – was lying on the ground.

“Mr Murphy appeared to be intoxicated.”

Twenty-nine-year-old Murphy, of Beales Farm Road, Lambourn, and his young companion were taken to hospital where they were checked over and later discharged, the court heard.

Murphy did not complete a breath test at the scene because of a “misunderstanding”, said Mr Atkins.

But when he was tested around seven hours later, the alcohol in his system was still 66mcg per 100ml of breath – almost twice the legal limit of 35mcg.

Murphy admitted drink-driving on April 27.

He has no previous convictions and a second charge, of failing to provide a specimen for analysis, was withdrawn by the prosecution.

Mr Atkins added: “In interview he was unable to assist police fully as to why the accident occurred… he was tired and didn’t have much memory.”

Alex Di Francesco, defending, said: “This was a grave error on his part.

“He is deeply remorseful.

“He apologises first to his passenger and he is grateful there were no lasting consequences; he apologises to the public and to other road users – he fully appreciates driving with excess alcohol could have had serious consequences.

“And he apologises to those he works alongside.”

Mr Di Francesco was initially vague about his client’s earnings, saying he had both “regular” and “irregular income” from winnings.

District judge Sam Goozee pressed: “What is the level of his irregular income – what are the levels of his winnings?”

Mr Di Franceso replied: “I can say with confidence his winnings are within the hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

Judge Goozee was not satisfied and warned: “I wouldn’t want to have to order a means enquiry – I presume he has an accountant and should be able to tell me what those winnings are.”

Mr Di Francesco replied that those net winnings were in the region of £250,000 annually, topped up by a regular salary of £1,250 per week.

He added that his client may yet face disciplinary action from the horseracing industry’s regulatory bodies.

Judge Goozee told Murphy: “Luckily neither you nor your passenger not the public were caused injury as a result of your actions.

“You’ve let the public down by virtue of your behaviour, and your colleagues in the racing world.”

He fined Murphy £70,000.

In addition, Murphy was ordered to pay £85 costs, plus a statutory victim services surcharge of £2,000.

Finally, he was banned from driving for 20 months.

Murphy won two British Classics and many other Group 1 races and was named British Champion Jockey in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024.

In 2020 he was given a three-month suspension following his positive test for cocaine after riding in France.