Missed court & warrent

[Pit Pony]

Davie_GLA said:

Why court though? If you were caught bang to rights surely you just hold your hands up and take the points and fine? Especially if your license is clean and its only 3 points.

I assume because he had the phone in a cradle, so he could view the Satnav, therefore it wasn't a hand held device, and it wasn't a phone, as he was using it as a sat nav. And he didn't take legal advice, because he thought that the court would listen to his reasonable argument and find in his favour.

If I was the magistrate, I'd demand to know why the police took it further than a road side ticking off.

[TVR1]

Is The Warrant 'backed for bail?'

[agtlaw]

TVR1 said:

Is the warrant 'backed for bail?'

A bit late to the party with that query.

[TVR1]

agtlaw said:

A bit late to the party with that query.

As always.......

I skipped past the pertinent post from your good self. In mitigation, I'm tired as I've been counting fingers and toes on ultrasound scans today. My mind was elsewhere.

Edited by TVR1 on Tuesday 22 July 23:51

[uber]

I have an update!

Turns out the warrant was never given to the police and they had not sent out a new date due to a backlog. They are sorting out the paperwork for me and all will be fixed in the next few days

[Davie_GLA]

uber said:

I have an update!

Turns out the warrant was never given to the police and they had not sent out a new date due to a backlog. They are sorting out the paperwork for me and all will be fixed in the next few days

Great, but why did it get to court in the first place?

[bobthebench]

Davie_GLA said:

Great, but why did it get to court in the first place?

Cos it's a phone, and he was interacting with it. Turning up the volume is still use. These are always going to go to court where there is any form of use.

[Davie_GLA]

bobthebench said:

Cos it's a phone, and he was interacting with it. Turning up the volume is still use. These are always going to go to court where there is any form of use.

Is this a recent thing? I got done on the phone about 3 years ago and was standard three points and a fine.

[agtlaw]

Davie_GLA said:

Is this a recent thing? I got done on the phone about 3 years ago and was standard three points and a fine.

Fixed penalty. As you probably know, you don't have to accept the fixed penalty. You are entitled to your day in court. The OP says he wasn't using the phone but merely turning up the volume on an app. Potential defence but most courts will convict if its hand-held and there's any interaction with the device.

[turbobloke]

agtlaw said:

Davie_GLA said:

Is this a recent thing? I got done on the phone about 3 years ago and was standard three points and a fine.

Fixed penalty. As you probably know, you don't have to accept the fixed penalty. You are entitled to your day in court. The OP says he wasn't using the phone but merely turning up the volume on an app. Potential defence but most courts will convict if its hand-held and there's any interaction with the device.

That seems to imply that even voice activation when using hands-free is unlawful these days as it's difficult to operate hands-free without any tactile or sonic interaction?! Unless the phone has one of those e.s.p. apps and the user is psychic Anyway jesting apart it will be interesting to learn what is lawful at the moment - genuine request seeking any advice you may wish to give

[Davie_GLA]

Ah, of course. I guess as i ws caught bang to rights there was no contesting it.

[agtlaw]

turbobloke said:

That seems to imply that even voice activation when using hands-free is unlawful these days as it's difficult to operate hands-free without any tactile or sonic interaction?! Unless the phone has one of those e.s.p. apps and the user is psychic Anyway jesting apart it will be interesting to learn what is lawful at the moment - genuine request seeking any advice you may wish to give

Legislation prohibits a person from driving, or causing or permitting a person to drive, a motor vehicle on a road if the driver is using a hand-held mobile telephone or similar device. The legislation does not set out what is meant by 'using'. However, the Department for Transport outlined, in a consultation letter about the then new legislation, the following:

'The offence will apply to drivers speaking or listening to a phone call, using a device interactively for accessing any sort of data, which would include the Internet, sending or receiving text messages or other images if it is held in the driver's hand during at least part of the period of its operation. We do not wish to prohibit the carrying of hand-held phones in vehicles or require them to be switched off. A phone may therefore continue to be used to receive data when it is in a vehicle providing the driver is not holding it.'

'Within the context of holding a phone, pushing buttons on a phone while it is in a cradle or if it is being operated via buttons on the steering wheel or handlebars of a motorbike would not, in our view, breach the new regulation.'

The inference to be drawn from the second paragraph is that pushing buttons, whilst the phone is held in the driver's hand, would be an offence. It isn't clear cut.

[turbobloke]

agtlaw said:

turbobloke said:

That seems to imply that even voice activation when using hands-free is unlawful these days as it's difficult to operate hands-free without any tactile or sonic interaction?! Unless the phone has one of those e.s.p. apps and the user is psychic Anyway jesting apart it will be interesting to learn what is lawful at the moment - genuine request seeking any advice you may wish to give

Legislation prohibits a person from driving, or causing or permitting a person to drive, a motor vehicle on a road if the driver is using a hand-held mobile telephone or similar device. The legislation does not set out what is meant by 'using'. However, the Department for Transport outlined, in a consultation letter about the then new legislation, the following:

'The offence will apply to drivers speaking or listening to a phone call, using a device interactively for accessing any sort of data, which would include the Internet, sending or receiving text messages or other images if it is held in the driver's hand during at least part of the period of its operation. We do not wish to prohibit the carrying of hand-held phones in vehicles or require them to be switched off. A phone may therefore continue to be used to receive data when it is in a vehicle providing the driver is not holding it.'

'Within the context of holding a phone, pushing buttons on a phone while it is in a cradle or if it is being operated via buttons on the steering wheel or handlebars of a motorbike would not, in our view, breach the new regulation.'

The inference to be drawn from the second paragraph is that pushing buttons, whilst the phone is held in the driver's hand, would be an offence. It isn't clear cut.

Thanks for the info.