Help Needed Please

PeakieAUNG01

I’m hoping someone can help. This morning at around 7:30am (13th Nov), I was stationary in traffic on the M25 near Cobham with my engine off. I used the time to connect my phone to my car via Bluetooth. The police, who were nearby, pulled me over and issued a ticket for using my phone while driving—even though I wasn’t driving. The officer mentioned there are 12 unmarked police cars looking for drivers using phones. I explained I was stationary with the engine off (it automatically stops at a standstill), but the officer said I couldn’t prove it. Apparently, they were using a rolling roadblock for this operation. Does anyone with legal expertise have any advice please? Thank you in advance.

born_again

Can we take it that you were in one of the running lanes & not on the hard shoulder?

Ayr_Rage

You're stuffed as you were using a handheld device whilst in control of a motor vehicle, it is irrelevant that you were stopped in traffic and the automatic stop-start had shut off the engine.

PeakieAUNG01

Yes I was stationary on the road, not on the hard shoulder.

Gr1pr

Try asking over on the FTLA parking forum website after reading their posting requirements first 

soolin

Gr1pr said:

Try asking over on the FTLA parking forum website after reading their posting requirements first 

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Ms_Chocaholic

Yeah this catches a lot of people out.  You might be lucky and get a drivers awareness course rather than a fine and points, depends on whether you've done one before and if so how recently.

ButterCheese

I suppose the devil is in the detail; where you holding the phone or was it in the cradle?  You could argue that if it was in the cradle then it's not being used as a handheld device, as it's not in your hand.  Nor were you using it to call or text.

This is what annoys me.  What is the difference between doing that and, say, touching a modern car infotainment screen to turn the fan on?  My colleague has one of these and the touchscreen controls everything, there are no actual "knobs".  In both cases you are taking your eyes off the road to adjust a setting.  The only difference is it happens to be a small phone screen and not an OEM control screen.  I understand the dangers with calling/texting whilst driving.  But surely there needs to be some discretion shown by the Police.  

On the other hand, if it was being held in your hand then I don't think you have much defense