Inverness Caledonian Thistle have suspended midfielder Richie Hart after he admitted cocaine possession.
The 29-year-old was fined £300 by Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, having been found with the Class A drug at the Rock Ness music festival in June.
Hart, who joined Inverness in 2002, will now await the club's next stage of action.
Caley Thistle have announced they will deal with the former Ross County player's case internally.
In a statement, the club announced: "Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC can confirm that following Richard Hart pleading guilty to a criminal offence concerning a controlled substance, Mr Hart has been suspended from training and playing with the club until further notice. When the matter was originally brought to our attention, the club interviewed the player and given his responses agreed to leave the matter until the allegations were addressed in court. The club would like to reassure the club's commercial partners, supporters and the public that the club adopts a very firm stance in relation to the use and/or possession of drugs. The club will deal with the matter internally and will make no further comment until the position has been resolved."
Hart's only first-team appearance during this campaign was as a substitute in the opening-day defeat to Rangers on August 4.
A foot injury kept him sidelined, but Hart recovered to make himself available to manager Craig Brewster and featured for the Inverness reserves last week.
06 October 2007
Hibernian sprung a surprise with a 1-0 win away at Rangers to leapfrog the Old Firm side and go top of the SPL table.
Hibs' victory came courtesy of David Murphy who struck on the hour mark to give his side all three points and a place at the top.
Dundee United were 1-0 victors over Motherwell – a result which moves them up to fourth in the table.
The two sides started the day equal on points but The Tangerines are now three better off after Darren Dods hit the net with just over ten minutes remaining.
Hearts were the day's biggest victors after they beat Falkirk 4-2 at Tynecastle.
Andrius Ksanavicius, Marius Zaliukas, Andrius Velicka and Christian Nade gave the hosts a four-goal advantage but Graham Barrett and Pedro Moutinho both got their names on the scoresheet in the last five minutes to give the scoreline a degree of respectability.
Abime Koudou scored in the first minute of the 2-2 draw between Kilmarnock at Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
A Simon Ford own goal pulled Inverness level but Colin Nish looked to have given the hosts the win before Don Cowie struck to give Falkirk a share of the spoils.
01 October 2007
Furious Falkirk manager John Hughes has demanded a massive improvement from his players after watching the Bairns slump to a 4-2 defeat at Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Hughes was particularly unhappy with his side's defending and has warned his players that they could be in for a long battle to avoid relegation unless there is a marked improvement in their performances.
"The first half was especially disappointing," he said. "There wasn't much we could take from it at half-time, although all credit to Inverness because they looked like they wanted it more than us. I tried to sort it out at half-time as I felt we could get back into the match and then Scott Arfield scores a wonder goal to get us back in it. However, the fourth goal killed us. The way we're conceding goals is disappointing and being a defender myself I'm unhappy about it, but it's something that we just need to work on. Make no mistake, however, we're in a relegation dogfight and I want my players to read this in the newspapers as hopefully it will mean they get back to doing what I know they are capable of."
