Cyclist reports driver for using mobile phone at the wheel - but police accuse him of breaking the law
26 February 2024, 09:45
A cyclist who reported a motorist accusing him of using his mobile phone at the wheel found himself being accused of an offence.
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Dave Clifton, 56, filmed a Range Rover driver holding a phone while he was cycling in Belgravia, but after he submitted the video to police, they claimed he had been cycling on the wrong side of the road and suggested he “could pose a danger to other road users,” the Evening Standard reports.
Mr Clifton, from south-west London, has been charged with riding a bicycle without due care and attention. He faces trial next month.
He told the paper the case against him is “petty”.
He was on Pont Street in Belgravia at around 1.30pm one day last August when he spotted the Range Rover going in the opposite direction.
He turned round to film the driver using his phone at the wheel.
Police say the cyclist is “in the middle of the road” and then “very close to the Range Rover on the opposite side of the road.”
Mr Clifton said it was a ‘ludicrous’ allegation. “The police have ignored the filtering motorist and the driver using a mobile phone and have chosen to prosecute me. This seems to be malicious.”
Mr Clifton is due to face trial next month at Lavender Hill magistrates’ court.
The driver of the Range Rover received a police “advisory letter."
