Chippenham mum cleared of using phone while driving (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Chippenham mum cleared of using phone while driving

5:17pm Monday 23rd November 2009

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A mum has overturned a conviction for using her mobile phone while behind the wheel after winning a crown court appeal.

Caroline Palmer represented herself at the hearing insisting she would never use her phone, which was in her handbag on the back seat, while driving.

And a judge sitting with two magistrates found in her favour quashing the conviction which would have put three points on her licence and cost her hundreds of pounds.

PC Christopher Penny told the court how he pulled up alongside the 49-year-old’s car at the Kingston St Michael crossroads on the afternoon of Wednesday February 18.

He said he looked across and saw a woman driver clasping a black mobile phone handset to her right ear with her lips moving.

But Caroline, who was heading home with a male friend in the passenger seat after they had been shopping, insisted he was mistaken.

She said she must have been leaning on the door resting her head on her hand while chatting to her pal.

And she said her red and silver phone, which the officer steadfastly refused to look at, was in her handbag on the backseat.

The officer told Swindon crown court he was no more than a few metres from the woman and could see through the two windows as it was a clear dry day with good visibility.

He said the phone was partially obscured by her bobbed hairstyle and he saw it for no more than five seconds.

“Thinking back it was for two to three seconds I had the female driver in my view,” he said in evidence.

He accepted that he had refused to look at her phone saying she could have been using another handset or not making a call but looking for a number, or taking a picture.

When he spoke to her he said she had told him ‘I haven’t used my mobile phone since 8am this morning’.

Under cross examination from Caroline the officer accepted he had not made a note of weather conditions, which she said were rainy.

Caroline told the court that she had tried to get the details of any calls made from her mobile phone company but all they could give her was an itemised bill of outgoing calls.

She said she was on the way back from Cribbs Causeway when she was pulled over and thought she was going to be told she had a dirty number plate or a broken light.

After he told her why he wanted to speak to her she said the officer was rude and insisted she get into his vehicle and that he had no interest in seeing her phone.

As a result of the officer’s attitude towards her she said she had spoken to the police about making a complaint.

The mum, of The Green, Etchilhampton, Devizes, told the court it would have been easy to pay the £175 fine and costs and swallow the points but her principles meant she had to challenge it.

Under cross examination from prosecuting barrister Jonathan Heard she denied that she was using a mobile and was fighting it because she felt the officer had been rude.

Finding in her favour Judge Euan Ambrose said he and the magistrates had reminded themselves they had to sure she was using the phone.

“We feel that there is scope for PC Penny to have been mistaken and that is the reason we find for the appellant,” he said.

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