Troubled ex-champion AFL footballer Ben Cousins has been charged by police for failing to stop in Mosman Park on Wednesday night.
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Police allege Cousins was driving erratically along Preston Point Road. He has been charged with driving recklessly and failing to stop.
Channel 7 reported on 6PR reported that Cousins was driving slowly and that he was contacted in his car by phone and it's alleged that he said he was on his way to a family emergency. The radio station said that he refused a breath test at the scene.
He was in the police station for about three hours and collected by a family member.
Cousins has fought a long-standing battle with drug addiction and in January was hospitalised after hitting his head in a fall at a rehabilitation clinic. He was deregistered by the AFL for the whole of the 2008 season because of his addiction problems.
Cousins' playing career had almost every imaginable honour - a Brownlow Medal in 2005, an AFL premiership the following year, captaincy of the West Coast Eagles and six All-Australian jumpers.
But off the field he drifted from one controversy to another during his last five years in the AFL.
He lost the Eagles captaincy in 2006 after an incident in which he fled from a booze bus, then was suspended by West Coast in the pre-season of 2007 due to what was later revealed to be a substance abuse problem.
Cousins returned to the field later that season but, after having his car searched and being arrested for drug possession in October 2007, his contract was cut by the Eagles.
Cousins spent a year out of the game before returning to play two final seasons with Richmond in 2009 and 2010.
