£60 fine and 3 points.

gk172

Hi there Im after some advice please as hubby has just phoned me saying he has been stopped and fined for using his mobile phone whilst driving :mad: but he wasnt, we have a bluetooth carkit fitted and use that so the phone was no where near hubbys hands at all and he wasnt even on a call either way. He refused the fine as he wasnt on the phone and his call log backs that up but what can we do? He is going in to the main police office to register a complaint but where do we go from here as the police have said it will now go to court :mad:

All advice very welcome.

sporedude

Always here one side of the story....Maybe he was on the phone and he's trying to pull a fast one.

sarahg1969

Tricky, isn't it? It's your husband's word against that of the police officer. And it's not difficult to guess who the Magistrates will believe.

I was pulled over a few weeks ago for using a mobile phone while stopped at traffic lights. I don't even own a mobile phone. Obviously, the police officer thought that explanation was a little far-fetched. I had the radio on and was singing along to it, and was probably leaning on my hand. He wasn't up for searching the car.

At first, I thought it as fairly amusing, and then realised that I could be in a lot of trouble here. How could I ever prove that I wasn't on the phone?

Anyway, after some discussion and his refusal to look in my car, he "gave me the benefit of the doubt", but told me I wouldn't be so lucky in future!

I'd driven down the slip road towards the motorway before pulling over (thought I could at least inconvenience him a little – it's an 11-mile drive to the next junction!), but he just reversed back up it!

TonyMMM

Making a complaint is only relevant if the officer didn't deal with your husband professionally - e.g. was abusive/violent etc. At this stage you will only complicate things by going down that road (and the complaint won't even be investigated until the court case is over anyway).

Bottom line is the officer says he was using the phone, he says he wasn't - officers statement will go to the CPS who will decide if a prosecution should go ahead and if yes, a court will have to decide ... your husband needs to gather together any evidence he can to help his case (witnesses , outgoing/incoming call logs,) and wait for a summons (or if you are lucky, CPS willl decide not to go ahead).

RobertoMoir

gk172 wrote: »

Hi there Im after some advice please as hubby has just phoned me saying he has been stopped and fined for using his mobile phone whilst driving :mad: but he wasnt, we have a bluetooth carkit fitted and use that so the phone was no where near hubbys hands at all and he wasnt even on a call either way. He refused the fine as he wasnt on the phone and his call log backs that up but what can we do? He is going in to the main police office to register a complaint but where do we go from here as the police have said it will now go to court :mad:

All advice very welcome.

Speak to a solicitor. Really. If the logs back your husband up then this is a good thing but he needs specific advice from someone in a position to examine the precise details of the police's claims and how that relates to your husband's defence, not the well meaning opinions of people on the interwebs who don't have the full facts.

Guys_Dad

Of course, the thing here was it was claimed that he was "using a mobile phone". The logs will only partially help.

1. He may be accused of reading or composing a text message. If the latter, it would obviously not have been sent. If the former, it could have been received before.

2. Is the phone a walkman phone and could he have been listening to a track?

3. Was he looking at some photos on the phone?

Now i am not suggesting that he was doing ANY of these - just reminding people that phones are multi-functional devices and the old defence of your call log - which may not, of course, show received calls - isn't so robust these days.

gk172

Thanks for your helpfull replies, my hubby wasnt on a call and the phone was sat in a box designed into the dashboard, a phone is only to make and recieve calls and i only managed to pursuade him to have a camera phone about 6 months ago (my old phone) he isnt interested in anything else the phone can do so we can rule that out. He has requested call logs from his place of work so that should help clarify that he wasnt on a call. He also called into the police office and its not a complaint as yet but more of an enquirey as to what next and basically he has to sit it out till he gets notification through but he has no paper work or ticket from this morning. Its just strange that both officers apparantly saw hubby on phone through privacy glass

Yes a call to a solicitor seems about the best advice to more info.

gk172

sporedude wrote: »

Always here one side of the story....Maybe he was on the phone and he's trying to pull a fast one.

Yes thats why we paid £400 to have a bluetooth carkit professionally fitted just so hubby could make calls from his handset:rolleyes:

dodger1

If he genuinely wasn't doing anything at all with the phone then make a formal complaint against the police officers in question. If your husband is correct then they deserve to have a complaint on their record. It may not help your husband in court but it would make those officers think twice about making false accusations again. Before anyone starts shouting, I'm not anti police just anti bad police.

withabix

The officer will need to have some evidence, surely?

If it was a traffic car, they will have video.

bargepole

gk172 wrote: »

... Yes a call to a solicitor seems about the best advice to more info.

I disagree - most high street solicitors are completely clueless about motoring offences, and will charge you a shedload of money for doing very little.

You can get specialist help for free on the forums at https://www.pepipoo.com, and I would suggest that if he gets a print out of the call log showing no calls or texts sent / received around the time of the alleged offence, then the [STRIKE]lying barstewards[/STRIKE] guardians of the law might well withdraw the charge.