FORMER Arsenal and Colchester United footballer Perry Groves has been issued with a fixed penalty notice for using “insulting words and behaviour” while on a night out.
FORMER Arsenal and Colchester United footballer Perry Groves has been issued with a fixed penalty notice for using “insulting words and behaviour” while on a night out.
The winger, who started playing football for Cornard Dynamos before turning professional, was arrested in Crouch Street, Colchester, in the early hours of April 26.
Groves, who last night declined to comment on the incident, was arrested and then issued with a fixed penalty notice, it emerged yesterday.
A spokesman for Essex police said: “We can confirm that police issued a 43-year-old man from Colchester with a fixed penalty notice for a Section 5 public order offence of using abusive and insulting words and behaviour, likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, after he was arrested in Crouch Street, Colchester, at 1.15am on Saturday, April 26.”
After his family moved to Great Cornard, near Sudbury, Groves began playing football for Cornard Dynamos before signing as an apprentice at Colchester United in 1981. He turned professional a year later and spent four seasons at Layer Road, scoring 26 goals in 142 league games.
He is most famous for playing for Arsenal, signing for the London club in 1986 for £50,000. In his first season, he was part of the League Cup winning team before helping the squad clinch the championship in 1989.
Mainly used as a substitute, he was in Arsenal's league winning squad in the 1990/91 season and in all played 155 times for the Gunners, where he remains a fans favourite.
He then moved to Southampton but played just 15 times in two years before he was forced to retire from professional football, at the age of 28, following two serious Achilles tendon injuries.
Groves now works as a sales representative for Permaplay, a company that designs school playgrounds run by former Manchester City legend Francis Lee, and also features on various TalkSport radio shows.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here