Using a Mobile Phone Whilst Driving
Its an offence to
"use" a mobile
phone whilst driving, unless you are using
the phone in a genuine emergency.
The
police often make the mistake of assuming
that "holding"
a mobile whilst driving constitute the offence.
It doesn't!!
We have won many cases
where the police have only been able to
prove that our client was holding and not
using the phone.
The police are under
a duty to fully investigate an offence,
so if you are stopped and you deny that
you were using your phone then you should
offer the officer the opportunity to examine
the phone and take down the number. If the
officer fails to do this he/she will be
failing in their duty to fully investigate.
If you can attend
court with phone records to show that the
phone in question was not used (in any way)
around the time of the alleged offence then
(as long as the magistrates believe you
and accept the evidence) you should
be found not guilty.
We have found that
whilst you can get the outgoing records
for your phone from your provider you probably
wont be able to get the incoming records
without making an application to the court
for a witness summons. This focuses the
minds of the mobile phone providers so that
they produce the records exhibited to a
statement for one of their member of staff.
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