All Whites defender Liberato Cacace has lost his driving licence for six months after admitting six speeding offences on the same stretch of road in Wales, all committed within weeks of joining English Championship club Wrexham last year.
The 25-year-old was dealt with in his absence at Mold Magistrates Court in North Wales on Wednesday (UK time), the Chester and District Standard reported. He had been listed to appear but did not attend. The court was told in a letter from his solicitor that he “accepted full responsibility for all matters” and wished to plead guilty.
All six offences happened in August 2025 on the A483 near Wrexham, where the limit is 50mph, or about 80km/h. Five were at speeds between 57mph and 63mph, roughly 92km/h to 101km/h. The fastest was 68mph, or about 109km/h, according to the court report.
Under the sentencing guidelines for England and Wales, speeds of 51mph to 65mph in a 50mph zone fall into the lowest penalty band, known as Band A, which carries three penalty points. Speeds of 66mph to 75mph fall into Band B, which carries either four to six points or a short ban. The magistrates gave Cacace three points for each of the five lower-band offences and four for the 68mph offence, a total of 19 points.
That total is what cost him his licence. UK government guidance says a driver can be disqualified after building up 12 or more penalty points within three years, and six months is the usual minimum ban for reaching that threshold. The court was told Cacace had a clean driving record before these offences and was prepared to accept a ban.
He was fined a total of £1,023, which the court reduced to reflect his guilty pleas. He must also pay a £409 victim surcharge and £780 in court costs. 1News put the New Zealand dollar figures at about $2,384 for the fines, $953 for the surcharge and $1,818 for costs, which adds up to roughly $5,150 in all. The court warned him that driving while disqualified is a serious offence.
The timing of the offences is notable. Cacace moved to Wrexham in July 2025 after four seasons in Italy’s Serie A with Empoli, who had just been relegated. That puts all six offences in his first weeks as a Wrexham player. The A483 is the main road running south from the Chester area past Wrexham, a short drive across the border between England and Wales.
Wrexham is the club made famous worldwide by its Hollywood owners, actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and by the documentary series that followed its rise through the English divisions. The club is now in the Championship, the second tier of English football.
On the pitch, the ban comes at a quiet time for Cacace. RNZ reported that he has made 13 appearances for Wrexham but has not played in the first seven rounds of this Championship season. 1News said a muscle injury has kept him out.
That is a contrast with his winter. Cacace started all three of New Zealand’s pool games at the FIFA World Cup in North America in June, part of an All Whites side that took the country to its first men’s World Cup since 2010.
His path to Europe is one of New Zealand football’s better stories. Born in Wellington in September 2000, he came through the youth programme at Island Bay United before joining the Wellington Phoenix. He made his A-League debut in February 2018 and became the Phoenix’s youngest ever goalscorer at 18. In 2020 he moved to Belgian club Sint-Truiden, and in January 2022 he joined Empoli, first on loan and then permanently. He also played for New Zealand at the Tokyo Olympics.
Left-backs who can hold a place in Serie A are rare for any small football nation, and Cacace’s career has been a genuine source of pride for the game in New Zealand. The driving ban does not affect his ability to play, but it will mean relying on lifts or other transport to training and matches until the ban ends in March.
For New Zealand readers, the case is also a reminder of how differently the two countries handle speeding. Britain’s system attaches penalty points to every speeding conviction, even those only a few miles an hour over the limit, and repeated low-level offences on a single road can add up quickly. In Cacace’s case, not one of the six offences on its own would have cost him his licence. It was the total that did it.
For the All Whites, the more pressing question is his fitness. The ban has no bearing on whether he can be selected, but his muscle injury does, and New Zealand will want its first-choice left-back back playing regular club football as soon as possible.
Should sports stars face tougher scrutiny when they break the road rules, or is this a private matter that has nothing to do with their game? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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