NEWCASTLE United footballer Kieron Dyer was handed a six-month driving ban yesterday for clocking up his fourth speeding offence in two years.

The 24-year-old Newcastle and England midfielder was caught doing 63mph in a 50mph zone in his £40,000 four-wheel drive Mercedes.

Dyer was not in court to hear his solicitor tell magistrates a ban would cause him "immense hardship".

Barry Warburton said Dyer would have to curtail travelling to Ipswich three times a week to visit his sick father, his partner and their child.

Dyer, who was given three penalty points and fined £1,500, was stopped by police at 11.30am on the A167 Park Road South dual carriageway at Chester-le-Street, County Durham, on December 8, last year.

Magistrates at Consett, County Durham, were told it was the latest in a string of driving offences and banned him under the totting-up procedure.

On April 8, 2001, he was banned for two months and fined £1,000 for speeding on the A1(M) motorway in County Durham.

Seven months later, on November 18, he was fined £60 and given three penalty points for speeding.

In December last year, he was fined £500 and given six penalty points by magistrates in Grantham, Lincolnshire, after being caught driving at 80mph on a temporary 50mph stretch of the A1 in his BMW M3, on February 25.

Dyer has had a number of accidents in a series of luxury cars.

Two days before Christmas, he was lucky to escape uninjured after he damaged his £103,000 Ferrari when it spun out of control on a bridge.

He walked away shocked but unhurt after hitting the ironwork of the Swing Bridge, which spans the River Tyne between Gateshead and Newcastle.

The red Ferrari 360 Modena with personalised number plates was seriously damaged at the front.

Dyer, who cost Newcastle £6.5m when he signed from Ipswich Town four years ago, was seen limping away. His passenger, an unidentified man, suffered head injuries and whiplash.

The footballer was breathalysed at the scene, but the test proved negative and no charges were brought.