West Ham striker Carlton Cole has spoken of his disappointment at being fined £20,000 for a Twitter indiscretion in which he told a Tottenham fan to ' F off you c*** ' . The 31-year-old , who has 123,000 followers on Twitter , was responding to a message from Spurs supporter Stuart Hardy that read : 'Hi @ CarltonCole1 when your own team-mates do n't kick the ball out when you 're lying injured for 2 mins , you think it 's time to call it a day ? ' Cole accepted the fine from the FA , dished out after the incident that occurred on February 22 , but has now spoken out to defend himself . West Ham striker Carlton Cole was fined £20,000 for tweeting a fan saying ' F off you c*** ' in February . Cole tweeted a Tottenham fan who had insulted him on Twitter , but later deleted the message . Carlton Cole is far from the first footballer to have be censured over his behaviour on Twitter : . Darren Bent , 2009 - £120,000 fine . Bent was fined by his club Tottenham for a blast at chairman Daniel Levy . He tweeted : ‘ Do I wan na go Hull City NO . Do I wan na go Stoke NO do I wan na go Sunderland YES so stop f****** around levy. ’ Carlton Cole , 2011 - £20,000 fine . Cole tweeted during England 's friendly with Ghana saying : 'Immigration has surrounded the Wembley premises ! I knew it was a trap ! ' Rio Ferdinand , 2012 - £45,000 fine . Ferdinand appeared to endorse a tweet by another user which described Ashley Cole as a 'choc ice ' , a term said to mean a person is black on the outside but white on the inside . Ashley Cole , 2012 - £90,000 fine . Cole was unimpressed with the FA 's judgement in the John Terry racism case , tweeting : 'Hahahahaa , well done # fa I lied did I , # BUNCHOFT***S ' Michael Chopra , 2014 - £15,000 fine . Referring to life at crisis club Blackpool , Chopra posted : ‘ F****** joke this come in training only 6 f****** players here then find out the fitness coach taken the football session # joke. ’ Rio Ferdinand , 2014 - three-match ban and £25,000 fine . QPR defender used the word 'sket ' in reference to another Twitter user 's mother this season . ' I was disappointed I got done , ' the West Ham man told Sky Sports ' Goals on Sunday . 'The amount of abuse you get on Twitter is sometimes unruly and you ca n't defend yourself as a footballer . 'Obviously I know I 've got responsibility and I 'm a role model and some of the language that gets spouted at you , you ca n't return it . You 've got to be very aware of that and I did make a mistake . ' It is not the first time Cole has been caught out by the FA . He was fined £20,000 in April 2011 for a tweet he posted during England 's friendly against Ghana that read : 'Immigration has surrounded the Wembley premises ! I knew it was a trap ! 'The only way to get out safely is to wear an England jersey and paint your face w/ the St George 's flag ! ' After his second misdemeanor in February , Cole 's total fines for Twitter wrongdoings rose to £40,000 , an amount he admits 'hurts ' . 'You ca n't defend yourself , ' he continued . 'You 're a sitting duck really and you need to try and be able to blank it out of your mind – but some of the stuff they say is too much . 'If you ca n't handle it you should stay off Twitter or else you 're going to be getting fined a lot . 'Forty grand hurts ! I try to keep it humorous on Twitter , but sometimes being humorous does get you into trouble . ' After his tweet to the Tottenham supporter , the FA 's statement , detailing the fine , read : 'Following an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing today , Carlton Cole has been fined £20,000 after he admitted breaching FA Rules in relation to social media . ' 'The West Ham United player , who was also severely warned as to his future conduct , admitted posting a comment on his Twitter account which was abusive and/or insulting and/or improper and/or brought the game into disrepute , in breach of FA Rule E3 . ' Cole has been fined £40,000 overall for two separate incidents involving his Twitter conduct .
Carlton Cole was fined £20,000 for a tweet he sent to a Tottenham fan . He told the user to ' F off you c*** ' , and later deleted the message . Cole has now admitted his disappointment at the punishment . The England striker said : 'The amount of abuse you get on Twitter is sometimes unruly and you ca n't defend yourself as a footballer '