News / Police evidence preferred
A SHETLAND truck driver who denied using his mobile phone while driving his car through Lerwick after work last year was found guilty after two police officers gave evidence at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday.
Raymond Stewart, of 11 Hardbrakes Place, Dunrossness, was stopped by a two man police patrol car after he was spotted using his mobile phone while driving his black Vauxhall Vectra along Holmsgarth Road on 20 May.
PC Alexander Ramsden said they had been parked 20 metres off the main road beside the back of the Co-op supermarket watching out for mobile phone users or drivers without seatbelts, when they saw 29 year old Stewart drive past.
Both Ramsden and his colleague PC Callum Macaulay were “absolutely positive” they had seen Stewart speaking on his phone before they set off after him, flashing their blue lights.
When Stewart stopped in Bolts car park, Ramsden approached Stewart who was climbing out of the car with his mobile phone in his right hand.
The policeman charged him with using the phone while driving and offered him a £100 fixed penalty and three penalty points.
Stewart reacted by saying: “It’s appalling and ridiculous you can accuse someone of being on a mobile phone when I clearly wasn’t.”
Giving evidence, Stewart insisted he had not been speaking on his phone, had no need to because he had Bluetooth hands-free equipment in his car, and if his mouth was moving he would probably have been singing along to the radio.
He said he had not realised the police were following him until Ramsden approached him in Bolts car park, where he had gone to buy cigarettes.
He said his mobile was in his hand so he could use it for “telephone mobile bank business” and that he had offered the police his phone to check if there had been any calls, but they had refused.
Earlier Ramsden had said there was no need to check the phone, saying: “I knew I had seen him talking on the phone, that was sufficient for me.”
The phone could not be produced in court because it was broken, but the SIM card had been retained and examined and found to be blank, defence agent Tommy Allan said.
Allan added that there was no reason for Stewart to take the matter to trial other than to prove his innocence, and it would cost him a great deal more than a fixed penalty.
“Why would he put himself to the expense and trouble of going through a trial when there is nothing to be gained by it,” he asked.
Allan also said the police could easily have been mistaken, especially as the phone had been on the other side of Stewart’s head from where the police were sitting.
“People were absolutely convinced the earth was flat at one point, just because some people are convinced doesn’t mean it’s true.”
However Sheriff Philip Mann said that he found the two police officers were “entirely credible”, and he accepted their evidence rather than Stewart’s, giving him three penalty points and a £150 fine.
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