Birmingham City fan lit flare to celebrate his team’s goal against the Clarets

Blaine Daniel Darcy (28) who then ran away when confronted by stewards, told police he had been given the flare by an unknown man in toilets at the ground and did not know they were illegal.

Darcy had been searched twice coming through the turnstiles to the match and nothing had been found on him, Burnley magistrates were told.

Darcy, a lifelong Birmingham supporter, has now been barred from home and away matches at least until the end of the season.

But, he was spared a football banning order, after the justices said it was an isolated incident.

The defendant, of Ashfield Avenue, Birmingham, admitted possessing a firework/flare at a sporting even on August 15th.

Magistrates sentenced him to a 12 month conditional discharge and he was told to pay £85 costs, a £150 criminal court charge and a £15 victim surcharge.