A skip truck driver has achieved a seemingly impossible victory in a court battle after three police officers claimed to witness him using a mobile phone at the wheel.
Anthony Jones, 41, of Denton, Tameside, was issued with a £60 fine after police stopped him and said he had been spotted using his phone whilst driving.
Mr Jones knew he was innocent of the crime and decided to pursue justice, spending £2,600 collecting the necessary evidence to fight the fine and clear his name in court.
The team compiling his defence relied on a tachometer report - which records the truck’s movements - and records from his mobile network provider which proved he was not on the phone at the time of the alleged offence.
When this evidence was presented to Tameside magistrates, they cleared him of the offence and reimbursed the £2,600 he had spent fighting the penalty.
The court was told that the officers had stopped the skip truck driver in Ashton-under-Lyne town centre last May. Three officers claimed to have seen him holding an object to his ear, but could not claim to be absolutely sure it was a mobile phone.
The information from the mobile network provider showed he was not on the phone at the crucial time and the tachometer records proved that the lorry was in fact stationary.
Mr Jones was determined to fight the penalty as a matter of ‘principle’. He and his wife Debbie later revealed that the cost of the campaign could have left them in financial ruin.
"There were times when I felt like packing it in and paying up," Mr Jones revealed. "But it was a matter of principle. I had done nothing wrong and I was not guilty. I'm an honest guy." He added.
Mr Jones remarked that not everyone wrongly accused of using a phone at the wheel would have been as lucky as him, as a friend had lent him the money to get the reports and he only had the benefit of a tachometer chart because he was driving a lorry.
"Not everybody would have had that," Mr Jones said. "This has cost taxpayers like me money that it shouldn't have done. The whole thing has been a nightmare and shouldn't have happened."
Magistrates were told that the officer in charge had failed to take data from the phone, so the prosecution relied solely on the memories of the three officers involved. Carl Millar, defence solicitor, said, "It was clear that the case should not have reached the courts. The prosecution had to prove without any doubt that Mr Jones was on his phone. They clearly didn't do that."
