Court summons for mobile phone driving

[Onlyme234]

Hi all
I was caught sending a text on my phone in standstill traffic in March last year. Silly of me but a police officer was walking past and caught me. I got issued an FPN and received a letter in the post with a £200 fine and then details of how to surrender my license details online. I didn't realise that I also had to send off my license, fill out a form and send that off too. I honestly just didn't read the form properly.
I paid the fine and did it online but didn't send the form off. In September, I received a refund of the £200 and a court summons.
I'm due to go to court on the 23rd and was wondering if anybody had any advice?
I want to just go in and be super honest and say it was human error and I didn't read the form properly. Has anyone ever had this before and received more points or a larger fine?
Do they just reissue the same as on the FPN or am I at risk for more?
Any advice valued please

I’m not replacing my car that has no voice control to satisfy your tender sensibilities.

OP. I think you have all the advice you need. You made a mistake in not reading the relevant paperwork correctly, which is a mistake anyone could make irrespective of employment status, financial status or medical status.

I think on this occasion, you have done everything you could possibly do, and perhaps it best if you just attend court, and take whatever penalty they give you. You may be able to agree on a small fine etc, especially if means tested and if not I am sure they will offer you a repayment plan to suit your situation.

I'd stop replying to the goading replies. It's done, you've learnt your lesson, move on and keep your fingers crossed.

Good luck

You can touch it though. You just can't do that while holding it in your hand.

Also, many many cars don't have voice control. Neither mine nor my DP's do.

https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-driving-the-law

So not having the right tech is an exemption to the law ?

And the car doesn't need to have voice control. Unless you have a housebrick your phone will do it natively. It's the one useful island feature on smartphones in and ocean of "AI" shite.

Admittedly if you can pair our phone to the cars in flight display it's a bit more classy. But not essential.

Hence my sympathy rating is still zero.

It's funny isn't it. So you can use a mobile phone whilst stuck in traffic just as long as it's mounted on a holder on the dash not in your hand.

I mean surely the more relevant fact would be if the car was actually in motion and being driven not static with a handbrake on but who am I to tell the gov and police how to do their jobs.

so you have zero sympathy with anyone who can't afford an expensive car?

Available doesn't mean affordable. I bought a brand new car this year that doesn't have voice control, so it's not as if it's standard

There should be a prize for such a spectacular misreading of a post.

Surely I wasn't that unclear ?

Do you have zero sympathy for Deaf people or others with communication issues who cannot use voice control and do indeed need to touch a screen. When static I hasten to add, I do agree with not using phones at all whilst in transit.

You don't need an exemption to the law, because the law doesn't say you can't touch your phone.

I've posted the link, you're welcome to read it. Or get your phone to read it out loud.

My phone connects to my car, but only for calls or playing music/podcasts via Bluetooth. The phone doesn't have any voice commands until after I have selected that (and then only to ask it questions which I have never felt the need to do - but it doesn't have voice controlled texting etc).

Sorry to disappoint you. But it's simply not illegal to touch your phone. I often have to touch the screen when using it as a satnav to see traffic ahead etc, then again to recentre it. If I'm playing a podcast I touch it to choose another one. Which is allowed as long as it's in a holder attached to the dashboard, which it is.

You can't just pretend the law is different than it is in order to snark at people about it.

You can "not agree" with it, but be aware it's not illegal.

That's not an option that is open to magistrates.

A small affair, but 6 points and +50% on your insurance for 4 years. If you can't afford that, then you could downgrade to a moped for a few years.

Pathetic excuses don't increase the size of the fine.

It's legal as long as you don't take the phone out of the cradle.

If you don't have a cradle, then you have to listen to the radio or look at a road atlas like in the old days.

explain it like I'm stupid then

You don't have any sympathy with anyone who needs to touch a screen in their car
Some people can't operate their cars without touching a screen
Ergo, you don't have any sympathy for the people who drive those cars

What am I (and the other posters who have pointed out other reasons why not everyone can use non touch alternatives) missing?

Besides which, using touch screens themselves aren't illegal. It's fine to use touch screens to change the radio station, for example, and the law is unclear about integrated sat navs...

Update:
I got the same amount of points and half the fine I originally received in the post. So going to court actually turned out better for me.
The prosecutor stood up and said I'd made 'no attempt to respond to the penalty notice'
They they asked me to speak and I provided proof that I'd paid the fine on time and also surrendered my details online, it was just an admin error that I didn't send off the paper bit.
Pretty simple. I didn't mention ADHD just apologised profusely.

So happy for you. Lesson learnt - we're all human.

Great update OP, glad it turned out well for you.

That's great OP, you must be so relieved! Lesson learned the hard way but we learn by our mistakes I guess, really glad it worked out ok for you in the end.

The prosecutor stood up and said I'd made 'no attempt to respond to the penalty notice'

The prosecutor phoning it in with what's obviously their standard spiel perhaps went in your favour where the fine was concerned.

Do you think that's why it was less then?
I did put my income details and that I'm a student so that could've affected it.

Purely a guess but if the prosecutor stood up and said you'd made no attempt to respond to penalty notice; and you then presented your evidence that you'd paid the fine and completed the licence details online, this means that the prosecution side either haven't looked at the case, or they're deliberately lying, neither of which is going to incline the judge in their favour.