Took Phone out Of Pocket – Didn’t Use It!

Question:

I have today been given a penalty for ‘apparently’ using my mobile phone whilst driving.
I was at a set of traffic lights whereby my phone beeped/vibrated in my pocket and I took it out to put on my passenger seat.

At this time a police officer was on the road side and told me to pull over. He said I was using my mobile whilst driving and had committed an offence.

I argued saying my phone had beeped/ vibrated and I took it out my pocket to place on the seat. At no point did I answer or make a call to which I pointed out to the officer and even gave him the opportunity to check the phone records to which he declined saying he didn’t need to do that.

I have a handsfree unit in my car to which I showed him and told him if I was on a call it would go through that.

I feel I have been penalised unfairly. Can you please advise where I stand here?

Paula Says:

You are right. It’s not an offence to simply move/hold a phone whilst driving. You have to actually use the phone to be guilty of the offence.

You will have to get your phone records to show that no calls/ texts were made or received at the time of the alleged offence in order to cast a doubt on the officer’s account of events.

Have you got any points on your licence already? If so, how many?

Bear in mind that if you take the matter to court and reject the penalty ticket you put yourself at risk of higher fines and court costs.

Come back to me if you would like my help with this matter and I will be happy to assist further, I defend over 95% of the cases that I take on and get over 80% withdrawn without trial.