Martin Burnell, of High Wycombe, had his professional LGV driving licence suspended for 12 weeks, following a conduct hearing before Marica Davis, the deputy traffic commissioner for the East of England.
Giving evidence, Burnell said that for the second offence, in March, he had a Bluetooth kit but was temporarily using a phone which did not pair with it – so he answered the phone to tell the caller he would return the call. Burnell said that the owner of a recovery business, he needed the phone for his job.
However, the deputy commissioner strongly challenged his justification.
“Your livelihood depends on having a licence,” she said. “Even if it was an emergency you couldn’t deal with it while behind the wheel of a vehicle.”
His otherwise clean driving history meant that he received the minimum period of suspension for two mobile phone offences in a commercial vehicle – 12 weeks.
