Warrant issued for Spencer Oliver
Posted: 24 Mar 2004, 17:52
A warrant has been issued for the arrest of former European champion Spencer Oliver after he failed to attend court following a car crash last year.
Oliver, touted as a future world champion before an horrific injury ended his career in 1998, faces losing his licence after the crash in September, when it is alleged his blue Mercedes ploughed into a garden in Wood Street, Barnet.
Oliver failed to attend Hendon Magistrates Court on Thursday last week to face allegations that he did not have a driving licence, insurance or a valid MOT certificate at the time of the crash.
A Barnet police spokeswoman said: "A warrant has been issued.
"In the first instance, Mr Oliver will be invited to attend Barnet police station.
"If he fails to respond to that then the warrant will be executed, in accordance with the law, and officers will attend his address."
Oliver, who turns 29 on Saturday (March 27), had his boxing career cut short when he was knocked out in defence of his European super-bantamweight title by Ukrainian Sergei Devakov at the Albert Hall in 1998. Unconscious, he was rushed to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, where he underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. Oliver, now a ringside pundit for Sky television, remained unconscious for two days before making a full recovery, but his boxing career was over.
His uncle John Oliver, who runs Finchley Amateur Boxing Club in Buller Road, New Barnet, with Spencer's father Jimmy, said: "It's a tragedy the way his career was cut short. He would have made it right to the top without a shadow of a doubt.
"He was European champion, he could have been world champion."
Oliver, touted as a future world champion before an horrific injury ended his career in 1998, faces losing his licence after the crash in September, when it is alleged his blue Mercedes ploughed into a garden in Wood Street, Barnet.
Oliver failed to attend Hendon Magistrates Court on Thursday last week to face allegations that he did not have a driving licence, insurance or a valid MOT certificate at the time of the crash.
A Barnet police spokeswoman said: "A warrant has been issued.
"In the first instance, Mr Oliver will be invited to attend Barnet police station.
"If he fails to respond to that then the warrant will be executed, in accordance with the law, and officers will attend his address."
Oliver, who turns 29 on Saturday (March 27), had his boxing career cut short when he was knocked out in defence of his European super-bantamweight title by Ukrainian Sergei Devakov at the Albert Hall in 1998. Unconscious, he was rushed to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, where he underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. Oliver, now a ringside pundit for Sky television, remained unconscious for two days before making a full recovery, but his boxing career was over.
His uncle John Oliver, who runs Finchley Amateur Boxing Club in Buller Road, New Barnet, with Spencer's father Jimmy, said: "It's a tragedy the way his career was cut short. He would have made it right to the top without a shadow of a doubt.
"He was European champion, he could have been world champion."