George Michael was today sentenced to 100 hours community service and disqualified from driving for two years today after admitting to driving while unfit, freeing him to play two high-profile concerts this weekend.

The star had admitted the offence at an earlier hearing at Brent Magistrates’ Court, claiming that he was guilty due to "tiredness and prescribed drugs".

Andrew Torrington, for the prosecution, told the court that Michael was found slumped at the wheel of his Mercedes last October, after witnesses observed the vehicle weaving into the wrong side of the road at around five to ten miles an hour in the early hours of the morning.

He had a cocktail of drugs in his system, including a therapeutic quantity of a prescription anti-depressant, cannabis and the illegal dance club drug GHB - a class C substance.

But while the prosecution originally claimed he was unfit due to the cannabis he admitted smoking, that contention was later dropped.

Michael always denied being unfit to drive due to cannabis and said he had taken prescription drugs including a sleeping pill and was extremely tired. Michael’s defence counsel maintained that GHB could be present in the blood without any illegal substances having been taken.

District Judge Katherine Marshall told the singer that she was sentencing him on the basis that he was unfit to drive, and not on the possible reasons for his condition.

She told the singer the risk he had posed to other road users "was high" and as she banned him from driving for two years she told him: "Your driving record is not good."

The court heard his licence has six points on it and he had accrued five fixed-penalty fines over the past seven years.

Outside the court after sentence was passed, the singer criticised media coverage which he claimed had focused on the allegations of illegal drugs.

"Instead I have been sentenced almost entirely on the basis of unfitness to drive through tiredness and prescription medicines, which I entirely accept responsibility for," said Michael, who is set to star in the first concert at the rebuilt Wembley stadium on Saturday and Sunday nights.

"I am glad to put this behind me and am now off to do the biggest show of my life".

Michael, real name George Panayiotou, told the court today that he was ashamed of what he had done because of the danger posed to other people.

Dressed in a dark suit and black T-shirt, he told the court: "I was ashamed I had done something really wrong in putting other people at risk."

Witnesses saw him stop at traffic lights and remain stationary through several changes of the lights before pulling off in a way they thought might cause an accident.

The witnesses "described his behaviour as being bewildered, frightened, confused and apparently under the influence, as they described it, of drugs," when they approached the car, he told the court.

Brian Spiro, for the defence, said that Michael had returned from a concert in Paris, was very tired and had taken various medications including a sleeping pill.

He had then been given a DVD of his most recent concert and had attempted to drive to another home he owned in north London to watch it as the machine where he was was broken.

Mr Spiro told the court: "He now fully accepts to have got into the car on that occasion, given his tiredness, given the medication he had been given was the wrong, improper thing to do."

In addition to the community service and disqualification, Michael was ordered to pay £2,325 in costs. At the end of the sentencing, the judge wished him well for his concerts this weekend.

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