1
5
Paul Gascoigne, the former England footballer, has been fined £1,000 after admitting making a racist "joke" in front of hundreds of people at his An Evening With Gazza show.
The 49-year-old humiliated Errol Rowe, his black security guard, by asking him: "Can you smile please, because I can't see you?"
Gascoigne, who lives in Dorset, had been due to stand trial accused of using racially aggravated "threatening, abusive or insulting" words or behaviour.
He changed his plea to guilty before the first witness was called to give evidence at Dudley Magistrates' Court on Monday morning.
District Judge Graham Wilkinson was told the offence was committed during an on-stage performance by Gascoigne on November 30 last year at Wolverhampton's Civic Hall.
After Gascoigne's change of plea, Judge Wilkinson said the ex-player had admitted "the sort of insidious racism" that needed to be challenged.
He told the retired footballer: "You sought to get a laugh from an audience of over 1,000 people because of the colour of Mr Rowe's skin."