A motorist is preparing to take the stand against a police officer after being accused of committing a driving offence.
Georgina Anne Ryder, from Ongar, representing herself, spoke at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court, today, to deny a charge of using a mobile phone whilst driving.
In her defence Miss Ryder said that her mobile phone was attached into a secure clasp in her car and that there is no way the police officer could have seen what she was doing in her vehicle from so far away, at a roundabout in Stansted.
Miss Ryder of Little Laver says that she had no idea why she was pulled over until she was told, in December last year.
She said: “I was about 200 yards away from that junction; that is a long way.
“When the officer pulled me over he asked me if I knew why. I wondered if the dual carriageway had a 60mph limit, but it didn’t.
“I asked him if the piece of Perspex I had in the back of my car was a problem and he said no that he had seen me using my mobile phone.
“At that point I asked him to pop his head in my car and see where my phone was. To use it I would have had to have slid back the arm rest and detach it. The album art from iTunes was on the screen still.
“I have a print out from Vodafone which confirms that there was no activity on my phone at that time, no calls or texts, or apps open.”
The 25-year-old will now go to trial at Harlow Magistrates’ Court where PC Harvey from Essex police will give his version of events. Miss Ryder also added that another constable, PC Simpson, was there at the time and claimed that she had not seen her using a mobile phone.
She said: “She said that she did not see me using my mobile phone, but her colleague did. I find that strange, if they were in the car together surely he would have said to her, look at what that girl is doing.”
Miss Ryder will appear at Harlow Magistrates’ Court on July 24.
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