Supreme Court upholds driver’s mobile fine

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a driver who was found guilty of using his mobile phone while driving.

According to local media, a man was fined €200 and received four penalty points on his driving record after a district court found him guilty of traffic violations.

But the man, who took his case all the way to the Supreme Court, says the police officer who accused him of talking on his mobile phone while driving got it all wrong.

In an appeal to the Supreme Court, the plaintiff said that his phone was white, while during the initial hearing, the police officer said she had seen the defendant holding a black device right above his ear while driving.

The driver, who produced document proof he had bought a white phone, had failed to raise reasonable doubt after prosecutors pointed out that on the same receipt, with which he bought the white phone, there was also a record of a phone case that was black.

Appeal judges sided with the lower court, saying the district judge correctly had no reason to doubt the police officer’s testimony.

The blackened hand

But the plaintiff raised another issue, saying that he had been resting his head on his hand that was blackened at the time due to manual labour, suggesting the police officer mistook his hand for a black phone.

The man said he had been resting his head on his hand on the driver’s side window because he had a headache at the time, insisting at no time was he using his mobile phone while driving.

But the judges rejected the position, adding that the case should never have reached the Supreme Court and reiterating they had found no basis to overturn the ruling.