Court summons - driving with mobile phone

Milky_Mocha

Just pasted this on the wrong board and so reposting under this board. Apologies.

Hello

This morning I received a court summons for an alleged offence committed in August 2008. I took a phone call while waiting at traffic lights and got pulled over and given a ticket. I thought that because the car was stationary it was not an offence but the policewoman said the engine was still running therefore yes it is an offence. I had only been on the phone for a few seconds as the caller was a Homeserve plumber calling to say he was on his way - I had a home emergency water leak and simply said 'ok, thank you, see you soon'.

I was ordered to present my drivers licence to the nearest police station and to phone a certain number to pay the fixed penalty of £60.

I paid the penalty but could not find my drivers' licence as we had recently moved into the area and everything was in boxes in the loft. Also as I was heavily pregnant I could not crawl into the loft to search. I went to the police station anyway and explained the situation. They said I had 7 days and so should attempt to search further within that time.

I requested a replacement licence from the DVLA and it arrived on the 8th day. I then presented it to the police station but they said it was out of their hands and so I should await a court summons and there is nothing further they or I could do until then.

A couple of weeks later the fixed penalty I paid was returned to me along with a letter stating that a prosecution 'may' follow.

I heard nothing further until today, summoning me to court in March. I have also been given the option to plead by post.

My questions are:

Do I have any hope of pleading not guilty?
Does anyone know of any solicitors who could do my plea by post with mitigating circumstances for a 'moneysaving' fee? So far I've seen solicitor charges of £120 +vat and £150 + vat on the internet for this sort of representation.

Cheers

bargepole

Milky_Mocha wrote: »

My questions are:

Do I have any hope of pleading not guilty?
Does anyone know of any solicitors who could do my plea by post with mitigating circumstances for a 'moneysaving' fee? So far I've seen solicitor charges of £120 +vat and £150 + vat on the internet for this sort of representation.

I don't think you've got a credible defence for this one, using a mobile phone however brief the call with the engine running is definitely an offence. And if you contest it and lose, you will be hit for £350+ prosecution costs.

Those charges for a solicitor's letter seem reasonable, I can't imagine any solicitor getting a pen out of his pocket for less than £120.

Your only mitigation would seem to be that you were unable to accept the fixed penalty due to the DVLA delay in sending the licence, if the Mags accept that, they may just stick with the original £60 fine. How far away is the court - maybe it's worth turning up and pleading mitigation in person?

yellow44

The law defines a person is driving even if the vehicle is stationary but the engine is running.
From what you have said you accept your 'guilt' but need to keep the penalty as low as possible.
You have absolutely no need to pay for a solicitor in these circumstances.

The best thing to do is to plead guilty by letter and ask to address the court on the day of the hearing.
You can then go to court, address the magistrates and explain what you have said above.

Explain you wanted to accept the ticket but was unable to do so and ask that the penalty be kept the same as if you had accepted it. i.e £60 and 3 points.

Throw yourself at their mercy and look sorry and it should work.

If you cannot face appearing at court you can do what I have said but write this yourself and submit it prior to the hearing.

mrcol1000

Just to add I was recently in court (on the prosecuting side) and there was a case before ours where a woman had been fined for using a mobile phone while driving, hadn't turned up at court a few times, a summons issued for her arrest and had been held in the cells overnight. You have never seen anyone admit their guilt and pay a fine so quickly in your life.
By the way she wasn't represented by anyone.
I have only been at court a few times but from what I have seen from cases before ours as long as your genuine and honest to the magistrate they are alright to you. Also I have seen illprepared sollictors winding up magistrates especially when they over complicate stuff.
I have never been the defendant in a case but its magistrate court isn't really as scary as it sounds. If your that worried about going to court why not go and observe for an hour one day.

movingforward2010

my friend is a police officer, and he said always let it go to court, because you always win, i got off with using my phone as there was no actual proof, yes they could check phone records but was it your phone?, your phone could of been at home and you partner was using it, their word against yours!

NB: i do not condone using a mobile phone whilst driving!, i was also stationary in roadworks!

i wasnt prepared to accept £60 and 3 points for sending a text whilst stationary for 15 minutes by some jobsworth pc .

Reggie_Rebel

wxmlad wrote: »

i wasnt prepared to accept £60 and 3 points for sending a text whilst stationary for 15 minutes by some jobsworth pc .

You'll not be bothered when some idiot runs into the back of you while texting then

custardy

Reggie_Rebel wrote: »

You'll not be bothered when some idiot runs into the back of you while texting then

its alright as long as you're just reading the text

http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/tm_objectid=17778247&method=full&siteid=50081&headline=death-crash-lorry-driver-reading-text-name_page.html

movingforward2010

Reggie_Rebel wrote: »

You'll not be bothered when some idiot runs into the back of you while texting then

with the car in neutral in roadworks and the handbrake on , how is that going to happen??

movingforward2010

Reggie_Rebel wrote: »

You'll not be bothered when some idiot runs into the back of you while texting then

also love the way you missed ot this bit

'i do not condone using a mobile phone whilst driving!, i was also stationary in roadworks!'

movingforward2010

i see absolutely nothing wrong with sending a text whilst sitting in a huge que of traffic at resurfacing roadworks , infact even after i was given the ticket and the pc had gone , we were still sitting in the same bloody que for another 5 mins!

i do not use my phone for texting or calls at any other time whilst driving!

cyclonebri1

wxmlad wrote: »

i see absolutely nothing wrong with sending a text whilst sitting in a huge que of traffic at resurfacing roadworks , infact even after i was given the ticket and the pc had gone , we were still sitting in the same bloody que for another 5 mins!

i do not use my phone for texting or calls at any other time whilst driving!

Apart from it being illegal of course, but then you know that, you were ticketed for it? Doesn't have to make sense to be the law.