Ex-goalie Wayne Roberts calls for legal penalty over 'drug' mugshot

Former soccer player Wayne Roberts said on Friday he was taking legal advice over an image of him posted online.

The photograph appears to be a police mugshot taken after an arrest for alleged drug possession.

It was tweeted on Thursday by Chad Klate‚ and streams of comments flooded in as soccer fans expressed their concern for the former player. Klate subsequently deleted the image.

The tweet said: “Remember former Santos goalkeeper Wayne Roberts? He’s gone completely wayward‚ received this pic of him circulating on the net.”

Speaking to this publication on Friday‚ Roberts said he was seeking legal advice and would “probably” sue the police.

“That picture is not a real picture‚” said Roberts. “I have found a lawyer now … and I know who posted it. I am going get him to retract it and probably sue the police station.

“I was never arrested. I would rather not go into details. It is rather foolish.”

Roberts said he now worked as a carpenter and played football for an over-35s team just to “socialise”.

Cape Town police confirmed that a person called Wayne Roberts was arrested in May last year and fined for drug possession.

“Kindly be advised that the mentioned case CAS76/05/2017 is a possession-of-drugs case which was registered at Strandfontein SAPS for investigation on 2017-05-14 at 17:45. The suspect was found guilty in a court of law‚” said police spokesman FC Van Wyk.

Van Wyk said the accused was fined R1‚000.

Klate issued an apology for posting the image of Roberts. He said his intention “was merely to raise awareness rather than mock or tarnish the name of Mr Roberts”.