This driver pled not guilty, and so I had to attend court as a witness. I spent the entire day there, being called in at about 15:00 and having arrived at 09.30. Court eventually completed at about 18:00. It was an intense and interesting experience, and even a little unpleasant in seeing the consequences this driver's actions had on himself. Nevertheless, I believe I did the right thing in reporting him, and knowing what it is like to see the ultimate results for something like this, I still feel OK with filming miscreant drivers and reporting them. Mobile phone use behind the wheel is contemptible and irresponsibly dangerous behaviour. IIRC the driver's defence was in three parts - that I had wrongly read out his numberplate (rejected by the magistrates as unlikely), that he wasn't holding a phone to his ear as he always used bluetooth in his car and van as a result of being somewhat deaf (also rejected by the magistrates) and that he wasn't in the area as his jobsheet/timesheet showed he started a job a minute later in Oxford Street/Marble Arch (also rejected by the magistrates).
The magistrates seemed to me to have based their decision mostly on my video, and also described me as a credible and honest witness.
The driver already had 6 penalty points on his licence, and so was facing disqualification. As someone who has to drive for his job, he also faced losing his job should he lose his licence. It was quite painful to watch his distress. At the same time, as he explained to the others in the court how he had gotten his previous 6 points, it was very obvious to me that he didn't accept responsibility for his wrong doings in the past. It's as though he felt he'd done nothing wrong, or made small innocent mistakes in running a red light and speeding (the two 3 point penalties he already had). I wasn't very impressed at that.
The driver plead exceptional hardship, as he has dependants who would be very affected by him losing his licence and job, and whilst I'm normally quite scathing about such pleas in general, in this case I was rather happy the magistrates accepted his plea and let him keep his licence.
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