Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne has been fined £1,000 for making a racist comment to a black security guard at a public event.
Dudley Magistrates' Court was told that Gascoigne humiliated Errol Rowe, who had been assigned to protect him during his An Evening with Gazza show, by asking him: "Can you smile please, because I can't see you?"
Ordering Gascoigne to pay Rowe £1,000 in compensation, District Judge Graham Wilkinson told him: "You sought to get a laugh from an audience of over 1,000 people because of the colour of Mr Rowe's skin."
The judge told Gascoigne -- who admitted a racially aggravated public order charge -- that his previous convictions were not relevant to the offence, committed at Wolverhampton's Civic Hall last November.
He praised the Crown Prosecution Service for taking the case to court, said Gascoigne's comment was an example of "insidious" racism which needed to be challenged.
"A message needs to be sent that in the 21st century society that we live in, such action, such words will not be tolerated.
"It is not acceptable to laugh words like this off as some form of joke." Gascoigne had denied using "threatening, abusive or insulting" words or behaviour to cause racially-aggravated harassment, alarm or distress, but changed his plea to guilty at the start of a one-day trial.
The former Newcastle, Tottenham, Lazio and Rangers midfielder entered his plea on the basis that he denied making an earlier comment to Mr Rowe in a dressing room, in which he was alleged to have said: "I didn't know my security had got a sun tan."
Prosecution barrister Simon Davis said Rowe, who has worked for several celebrities, was left "dazed" by Gascoigne's actions.
He said: "Clearly, there should have been mutual respect between Mr Gascoigne and Mr Rowe.''
The court heard that Gascoigne, whose show features a question-and-answer session and anecdotes about his career, was addressing the audience when he asked for a tissue and said words to the effect of: "I can't tell if he's smiling or not."
According to one witness account, Gascoigne said: "You want to get to the front of the stage and smile so the audience can see you," as Rowe stayed in the wings.
Gascoigne was spoken to by police about his comments on Dec. 22 last year.
He told them: "Looking back now, obviously I have said the wrong thing. I apologise from the bottom of my heart and it will never happen again."
Defence lawyer Gavin Harris told the court the comment did not originate from malice but from Gascoigne's upbringing in "a bygone age" when such comments were commonplace.
The former player was ordered to pay a £100 victim surcharge and a £500 contribution to the cost of the prosecution.