Professor Green claims he  jumped into car to protect wife who fled when robbers stole £40,000 Rolex on his doorstep. Pic: Brian Barnard

Rapper Professor Green has been banned from driving for a year after admitting a charge of drink driving in Lewisham last year. 

The Hackney-born rapper, appeared at Bromley Magistrates’ Court yesterday under his real name, Stephen Manderson,

He received a one-year ban and was ordered to pay a £525 fine after pleading guilty to drink driving.

The court heard that the artist got behind the wheel under the influence of alcohol on November 3 because he was “panicked” after a thief stole his £40,000 Rolex and chased after his wife, reality television star Millie Mackintosh.

Police were later called to the musician’s home in Lewisham, where they found Manderson’s car crashed into a van.

David Hislop QC, defending for Manderson, suggested that the rapper, who had no previous convictions and a clean driving licence, had driven while over the limit for “some distressing and understandable reasons”.

Hislop also added that Manderson was “wrong” to have driven the car.

Prosecutor Samantha Mitchell told the court: “The defendant was spoken to and explained he had been looking for the suspect of his robbery.

“He had driven his car to look for this person and, during the course of looking for this person, he crashed into a parked van, causing damage.”

The police realised that Manderson was drunk and told him he would have to provide a specimen. Police found him to have driven with 52 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath – the legal limit is 35.

Manderson,30, told the court he would take a drink-driver rehabilitation course so that his 12-month disqualification might be cut to nine months.