Mohamed Haouas has been in trouble with the police on multiple occasions – Getty Images/Sylvain Thomas
Mohamed Haouas, the France prop, has been arrested for drink driving just over a year after receiving a conviction for hitting his wife in public.
According to reports in France, Haouas, 30, was stopped by police on the outskirts of Montpellier on Sunday night and arrested on suspicion of drink driving. The tighthead, who rejoined Montpellier this season after a stint with Biarritz, was allegedly stopped by a police patrol before spending the night in the drunk tank. According to the Métropolitain newspaper, a bottle of vodka was seized from the passenger seat by police. Haouas was released on Monday morning.
“He will be tried on Feb 4, 2025 as part of an appearance procedure upon prior admission of guilt,” the public prosecutor’s department said.
Haouas has made seven appearances for Montpellier – the Mohed Altrad-owned club of Englishmen Billy Vunipola and Sam Simmonds – this season and made his first start of the campaign in the Challenge Cup away victory over Dragons on Friday night. He rejoined his boyhood club this season – “conditional on exemplary behaviour” – despite last year receiving a suspended prison sentence for domestic abuse after hitting his wife in public.
Haouas’s wife, Imane, leaves the courtroom during her husband’s trial – Getty Images/Pascal Guyot
Haouas, who in 2022 was also given a one-year suspended sentence for an historic robbery from 2014, chased, tripped and slapped his wife, Imane, near the Polygone shopping centre in the Hérault region. In the same year, the 30-year-old was also given another suspended prison sentence for brawling in a boulangerie.
Haouas, who has 16 caps, has not been selected for the French team since. His last appearance for Fabien Galthié’s side came in the 2023 Six Nations, where he was sent off for headbutting Scotland scrum-half Ben White at a breakdown. In 2020, against the same opposition, Haouas received a red card for punching Jamie Ritchie, the Scotland back-rower, in the face at Murrayfield.
Last week, Montpellier announced that they had re-signed Haouas for two years alongside Bastien Chalureau, the France second row who received an eight-month suspended sentence at the start of this year for racial aggression. Haouas’s fellow front-rower, Wilfrid Hounkpatin, received a one-year suspended sentence in April for domestic violence while their Montpellier team-mate, Stuart Hogg, was last week given a five-year non-harassment order and fined £600 after breaching bail conditions. Hogg will be sentenced for abusing his estranged wife over the course of five years in January.