ROAD safety campaigners have called on the government to introduce £1,000 fines for motorists who use their mobile phones while driving.

Whitehall is said to be looking to increase the existing on-the-spot fine from £100 to £200, but road safety charity Brake says even more needs to be done and is calling for the doubling of penalty points as well.

Thousands of drivers across the UK are prosecuted every year for talking or texting on their mobiles.

Ryan Meachin, owner of Colne-based Ignition Driving School, said: “It’s extremely irresponsible. You would be surprised how many times I see people on their mobile phones, it’s more common than you would expect. Anything that can deter people from using their phones on the road is a good thing.”

He said he always makes his pupils switch off their phones before they have a lesson. “Sometimes they forget and the phone goes off and they always apologise. That’s life these days though, isn’t it?” he said.

Ed Morrow, campaigns officer for Brake, the road safety charity: “An increase in fixed penalty fines for mobile phone use at the wheel would certainly be welcome, although in our view it needs to go much further to £1,000 to provide a serious deterrent.

“The other vital piece of the puzzle is police enforcement. There’s no point increasing penalties unless drivers genuinely believe they are likely to get caught, and for that to be the case we need to reverse the trend of fewer and fewer life-saving traffic police on our roads.”

Self-employed driving instructor Yusuf Sidat, of Audley Driving School, Blackburn, agrees. “It’s totally wrong that people use their mobiles while driving because they lose their concentration. It needs to be enforced and when it hits people in their pocket that’s the main one really,” he said