Chico Slimani, a memorable X Factor contestant, was found guilty of drink-driving on Thursday, telling the court his arrest came hours after he broke his sobriety.
The singer, 55, whose real name is Yousseph Slimani, reached the quarter-final of the TV talent show in 2005 and later released a No 1 single, It’s Chico Time.
He told Willesden magistrates court he had been drinking whisky for six hours after losing a third friend to cancer.
He had also consumed a cold and flu medicine, NyQuil, which he told the court was for “a flu which you may call long Covid”, before he was pulled over at about 6.30pm on 13 December in Southgate, north London.
“It was after a third bereavement of one of my dearest friends, which was just devastating,” Slimani told the court, PA Media reported. “On that fateful day – I’m teetotal, I don’t drink – and it felt like I was going out of my mind, I couldn’t take it, so I drank.”
He has not drunk alcohol since, he told the court.
Slimani was disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined. The court heard he had been heavily in debt and as a result faced county court proceedings.
The district judge Mark Jabbitt ordered Slimani to pay a £600 fine and costs, and offered him a place on a drink-drivers’ rehabilitation scheme.
The judge said he was “generally sympathetic” to Slimani’s bereavements but not to excessive drinking or taking medication without checking the effect it had on driving.
Slimani told the court: “When I got to the police station all I could think of was the implications of me being arrested for something that goes completely against what I am and what I do,” citing his previous sobriety and charity work.
The singer called the incident “a catastrophe” that had led to the “loss of my reputation, the loss of work”.