Police followed the trail of destruction and gave Akpom a breath test. After it showed he was above the legal limit, the British-born Nigerian was taken to police station and later charged with drink driving.

But no one told the player’s father –who, after discovering the wreckage the following morning, feared his son had been kidnapped, the Sun claim.

The 22-year-old allayed those concerns by eventually returning home safe in a taxi. But at Willesden Magistrates Court on Monday he was fined £9,350, with £85 costs and disqualified from driving for 17 months after admitting driving the Range Rover with more than double the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

“His father woke up later and found the crashed car outside the gate with no driver and for a moment he was seriously concerned about what had happened to his son,” Akpom’s lawyer Aki Achillea told the court.

“He was about to ring hospitals and the police, fearing his son, being a high-profile footballer, had been abducted so this has affected the family as well.

“He has let himself down and made a dreadful mistake for a boy that has always been so disciplined.”

The 22-year-old committed the offence during a night out partying with friends in London. After the group moved from the West End to a 21st birthday bash at a club in Watford, the striker ‘stupidly agreed’ to put vodka in two glasses of cranberry juice.

“His driving was erratic and he was observed by an off-duty police officer. He was parallel to a Shell petrol station and lost control, mounting the grass verge,” prosecutor Zahid Hussain told the court.  – Daily Mail