The American, who has won a total of 14 Olympic gold medals, including eight at last year's Games in Beijing, was involved in an accident in Baltimore in the early hours of Friday morning after another car hit his utility vehicle when it jumped a red traffic light.

 

When police arrived Phelps, 24, admitted that he had drunk a beer about 75 minutes before but was not breathalysed because his judgment did not appear impaired.

 

The driver of the other vehicle, Amanda Virkus, is facing prosecution for the incident.

 

But Phelps, who complained of a sore ankle after the incident, also faces prosecution after police charged him for driving without as licence and failing to establish Maryland residency.

The driver's licence he showed police was an expired one from Michigan, where Phelps attended college before moving back to his hometown of Baltimore last year.

 

Maryland citizens must renew residency and obtain new licences.
 

Phelps must now appear in court.

Phelps won five titles at the World Swimming Championships in Rome that ended earlier this month and is training for the 2012 London Olympics.

Shortly after winning six gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Phelps pleaded guilty to drunken driving and was sentenced to 18 months on probation.
 

Phelps was suspended for three months earlier this year by USA Swimming after a photograph of him holding a pipe commonly used to smoke marijuana was published in British tabloid News of the Year.

Police in South Carolina investigated the incident but found insufficient evidence to charge Phelps, who apologised and said he had learned a lesson from the incident.