KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
areas, and by painting the cameras bright yellow, and by releasing the location of speed cameras publicly so they will show up on most satellite navigation systems. However despite these measures there is no legal requirement and in a lot of cases police will obscure themselves specifically to hide from unsuspecting motorists.
Q A
a section 20 certificate. This is a certificate that allows the prosecution to adduce evidence of the accuracy of a speed gun and it will be held to be accurate unless the defence has evidence to prove the contrary.
In the absence of a section 20 certificate, or a calibration certificate, it will be more difficult for the prosecution to prove their case but not impossible. For example, if a device was outside of its yearly calibration by a couple of days but it was calibrated on the day in question with no fault, that is likely to be enough evidence to convict. Similarly if it was within its yearly calibration and had been calibrated the day before and the day after the offence but not necessarily on the day, that will still likely be enough evidence to convict.
If however the device was months outside of calibration and the police struggled to prove the accuracy, then a case may well be dropped.
If you are ever unsure whether to challenge the calibration or accuracy of a speed gun, we strongly advise getting legal advice up front. If a speeding matter proceeds to court the prosecution will often refuse to provide evidence of calibra- tion unless the defendant enters a not guilty plea first. Many defendants therefore decide to enter a not guilty plea just to see evidence of calibration, without realising that if they are then found guilty after a trial the costs awarded against them will be substantially higher, often reaching thousands of pounds. We can help you make that decision before entering plea, and so before the costs starts to mount.
Q A
Another interesting question on speeding offences is whether the police are required to give motorists warning of speed traps.
The answer to that one is a simple - no. There is no requirement in law that any speed camera, whether it be fixed or hand held, requires any warning.
The police still do give drivers warnings in most cases either by putting warning signs in speed enforcement
OCTOBER 2021
Has the law changed with driving whilst using a mobile phone and is it now illegal to use my phone whilst driving at all?
Despite the plans to change the law being in the pipeline for in the region of two years now, the law is still yet to change.
As it stands, there is an offence of driving whilst using a mobile telephone. In the case of Barreto [2019] this offence was defined as holding a telephone in your hand whilst driving and using it for interactive communication functions which includes sending or receiving messages, making or receiving telephone calls or accessing the Internet.
However, if you are holding the phone in your hand but not using it for one of these purposes (for example checking the time, entering a diary entry) you could still be committing an offence of driving whilst not in proper control (3 penalty points and a fine) or if using the phone in a non-communication way affects the standard of your driving, you could be prosecuted with careless driving [3-9 penalty points or discretionary disqualification, together with a fine).
If you are not holding the phone at all, so it is in a cradle, technically there is nothing to stop you from using it, unless using it causes a drop in the standard of your driving, ie. if you were swerving between lanes or failed to notice the traffic in front had stopped resulting in a collision. Again that could cause you to be prosecuted for careless driving.
So at the moment, our advice is that the safest thing to do is to put the phone in a cradle so it is not hand held at all - that way you cannot be accused of using a phone hand held phone whilst driving – and only use the phone whilst the car is stationary at the side of the road, so you also cannot be accused of not being in proper control or careless driving. That way you are giving yourself the best possible opportunity of staying the right side of the law.
If you need advice on motoring matters please email
advice@pattersonlaw.co.uk or for regular updates on road traffic law follow us on
facebook.com/PattersonLawMotoringSolicitors or
twitter.com/Patterson_law_
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