PRIOR According to his family, football player Leon McKenzie of Coventry City, who was imprisoned for forging letters to the police in order to evade a driving ban, is doing well and working on his memoirs.
ANCESTOR Football player Leon McKenzie of Coventry City is writing his memoirs and is in high spirits, according to his family. He was jailed for delivering fictitious letters to police in order to evade a driving suspension.
After he acknowledged writing the letters to Northamptonshire Police in an effort to escape being found guilty of speeding, former Sky Blues striker Leon McKenzie was sentenced to six months in prison on Tuesday.
The 33-year-old McKenzie, who was a Coventry fan favourite from 2006 to 2009, announced his retirement from professional football in December.
The Northampton-based former player had attributed his period of melancholy to being in a “bad place” at the time of the charges.
But McKenzie’s family expressed gratitude for the support they received yesterday night on the football player’s Twitter page. They reported that he had “started to write an autobiography” and was “keeping well and in good spirits.”
McKenzie, who just began a new career in music, said he “couldn’t always make sense of what was going on” at the time of the charges due to a variety of personal and professional issues. The statement was released following his sentencing.
“Unfortunately, I experienced severe depression at that time, which prompted me to attempt suicide,” he stated. “I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time, and I started hanging out with the wrong people.”
“It was completely wrong how I behaved towards certain things, like these speeding violations. I was incredibly foolish to let someone else grab my points on my behalf. I let someone use my arguments without seeing how terrible the situation actually was.
McKenzie, a father of four, had acknowledged to having obstructed the legal process on six occasions.
Between February 2008 and December 2009, he wrote to Northamptonshire Police to escape six speeding tickets. The letters claimed McKenzie’s automobile was off the road and purported to come from a fake garage in London.
The former striker, who began his career with Crystal Palace and had also played for teams like Northampton and Kettering, was well-known to be a man of excellent character, defence attorney Andrew McGee told Northampton Crown Court.
During the hearing last week, McKenzie was also given an 18-month driving prohibition.
The player made his debut on September 12, 2006, after being signed by Coventry from Norwich in August 2006 for an initial payment of £600,000.
In Coventry’s opening game of the 2008–09 season against Norwich, he scored his 100th goal in his professional career. However, he was booked for flaunting a vest with the number “100.”
