Speed cameras could trap drivers on the phone

Motorists caught on camera with phones in their hands are "fair game", one Chief Constable said.

The comments come as harsher penalties for motorists who drive and phone are due to come into effect next Tuesday.

In many cases, drivers will not even know they have been punished, because police do not have to stop them to issue penalty notices.

Instead, an officer can note down the number plate of a driver they spot on their mobile, and send the fine through the post.

Motorists could be punished with three points on their licence and a £60 fine - double the current £30 penalty.

The proliferation of surveillance and police enforcement cameras across Britain means the risk of being spotted on the phone by a lens is much greater than being seen by a police officer at the roadside.

Mobile camera units have also carried out trials photographing drivers using phones at the wheel on the motorway.

Meredydd Hughes, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire and head of roads policing for the Association of Chief Constables, said:

"If officers using mobile cameras see someone using a hand-held phone, whether with their own eyes or through the lens of their camera, then they are fair game.

"Automated speed cameras will remain specifically to catch speeding drivers and there is no policy currently to trawl photographic evidence from speed camera images to target mobile phone users.

"However, that is not to say that we can't change the policy."

The new fixed penalties also extend to not having proper control of a vehicle - possibly if the driver is being distracted by using an otherwise legal hands-free mobile phone kit.

The tougher penalties mean police are expected to rake in more than £5million a

year, some £2.5million more than has been collected to date.

That has raised accusations from motoring organisations that drivers are being used as "cash cows".

Last night the self-styled Captain Gatso, of the anti-speed camera group Motorists Against Detection, said: "This is yet another example of the Big Brother surveillance society where there's no escape from the cameras."

Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander said: "Worryingly, while 92 per cent of people agree with the law, 21 per cent of drivers admit to breaking it.

"That is why the Road Safety Act will introduce a tougher fixed penalty of three points on your licence as well as a £60 fine."