NIP for using handheld whilst driving

A question about : NIP for using handheld whilst driving

So last night on the way back from work I was driving in crawling raffic and my mobile was poking into my right thigh.

I used my right hand to remove it from my pocket, allways kept one hand on the wheel and I drive an automatic BMW.

rested it on my lap and when I went to lift it onto the recess bulkhead where the sat nav thing is, I prefer it there because I can see out corner of my eye on reflection who it is thats calling.

I have a bluetooth hands free by the way

At that point police officer ran out an started banging on my window and got me to pull over.

Anyway I was given an NIP which is Ј100 and 3 points on my license, if I accept it.

Sometime after the event last night I called my mobile phone provider O2 who have given me a breakdown of call log by email.

The incident at written on the ticket is at 18:00, the times in and around that where I had actually used my phone are 16:06 and 19:06.

The call log proves I was not using my phone.

When I stepped out of the car the officer asked me were you making an emergency call on your mobile I responded no.

Later when he tried to get me to sign his slip I read what he'd wrote and asked why he had not recorded I had told him I wasn't using my phone, he said that I'd only said I wasn't making an emergerncy call.

I re-asserted that I hadn't used the phone at all.

Does anyone here have any experience of this, the officer was quite vile and it seems like a crap shoot which presumably most people just cough up and pay because they are afraid of going to court.

I don't idealy want to go to court but will if I must. So I'm hoping to be able to convice the Traffic Criminal Justice Unit before hand not to waste tax payers money.

Any advice welcome

Best answers:

• If you can prove that you weren't "using" the phone then don't accept the FPN and take it to court. Might be worth asking over on pepipoo forum site.
• Get proper legal advice before deciding what to do over paying the ticket v going to court. (Your only choices)
  (Either pepipoo or your solicitor)
  (Though your o2 record won't prove anything)
• Spoke to a solicitor, they have told me to contact O2 for a details report that would be admisable.
  That will help and possibly bat this away
  Its not enough that you were holding a phone, you have to have been using it and the burden of proof is on those prosecuting.
  The burden is on them and as I can prove I wasn't using it then I don't see how they can
  I think people just generally fold and pay and thats what they rely on