Kiefer Sutherland faces jail over drink driving charge

Facing jail: Kiefer Sutherland arrived at LA's Roosevelt Hotel after his arrest yesterday

It is the fourth time the actor has been arrested on DUI related charges and he is currently serving a five-year probation term for a 2004 conviction.

In 1989, he was arrested for drink driving and carrying a concealed loaded weapon and again faced DUI charges in 1993.

Lawyer and DUI expert Lawrence Taylor told American magazine People: "Sutherland could get up to 60 days in jail or worse, depending on varying circumstances."

Sutherland was pulled over at around 1:10am in Los Angeles after officers spotted him making an illegal U-turn.

The 40-year-old tested over the state's legal blood alcohol limit of .08 percent and was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence, Officer Karen Smith said.

He was released around 4am after posting more than £12,000 bail, according to Sheriff's Department records, and is scheduled to appear in court October 16.

Sutherland, who won a best actor Emmy award last year for his performance on the Fox TV series 24, has a well documented history of Hollywood hell-raising.

He developed a reputation for bad-boy petulance and a penchant for alcohol and bar fights following his split from Julia Roberts in the early Nineties.

While his personal life was making headlines, his career came to a virtual standstill, and he spent two anonymous years as a cowboy on the rodeo circuit.

"I needed to get away," he admitted years later. "I was doing awful work and justifying it on the basis that I had bills to pay."

In 2005 after reviving his career with hit show 24, times he was famously pictured drunk in a bar with trousers round his ankles.

He said last year: "I like to go to the pub and have a good time. I like a whisky every once in a while you know. But I consider that my time.

"I've never been late for a day's work in my life - what I do in my own time is my business."