Using your phone in the car? You may have a defence!

Using your mobile phone might NOT be illegal! You may have a defence…

The law needs to be precise… and if it isn’t, the prosecution may fail!

A van driver in slow traffic on the North Circular Road in London was using his phone to change the music track playing in his van. He was prosecuted for “using a hand held mobile telephone” whilst driving. It was accepted he wasn’t actually making a call or texting, or using the web.

He was convicted in the Magistrates Court, and appealed to the Crown Court. There he won his appeal, as the Court accepted that because he wasn’t communicating with any external person or device (which is what the charge required) then he wasn’t “using” the phone, as a phone. He was merely using it as a music storage device.

This was a decision from a Crown Court, rather than the Court of Appeal, or even the Supreme Court. That means other Courts are not necessarily bound by it, but they may be persuaded by the same argument.

I do not condone the use of a mobile phone in a motor vehicle, but if you face an allegation of breaking the law – seek expert advice before you enter a plea in Court, or in writing. You may have a defence.

Call James Kirby on 074-9080-7766.