Callely fined for holding mobile while driving
Independent Senator Ivor Callely was fined €60 today at Dublin District Court for holding a mobile phone while driving his car.
Senator Callely, who has been at the centre of a controversy surrounding his expenses, appeared in court where he denied holding a mobile phone while driving his Jaguar car, at Ballybough Road, in Dublin city centre on the afternoon of October 11 last.
Traffic Garda Keith Daly told the court that that he observed Callely driving his blue Jaguar “holding a mobile phone to his right ear.”
Garda Daly said he performed a u-turn and pulled the senator over at Summerhill Parade.
He told Judge James Paul McDonnell that at this stage Callely was talking into a “handsfree device” but the phone he had seen him using was lying on a passenger seat.
Callely's solicitor put it to Garda Daly that the phone on the passenger seat was broken and not the one Callely had been using.
The garda replied that he did not have to prove that the phone was in use but that the defendant had been holding it while he was driving which he said he observed.
The defence submitted that Callely had not received fixed penalty notice but the garda told the judge that he had an official record of it being sent.
Callely's address at St Lawrence's Road, in Clontarf, in Dublin was also on his driving licence, the court was told by the garda.
In evidence, the senator told the court that he had been talking into a “Parrot” handsfree device and he accepted that he had two mobile phones in the car.
In relation to the fixed penalty notice, he said he did not keep a “log” of post coming to his house.
Callely, dressed in a light blue suit, agreed with his solicitor that it would have been “ridiculous” not to have dealt with the fixed penalty notice “rather than have the notoriety of dealing with this in court.”
Callely (aged 52) also said he would have paid the penalty if he had received the notice.
Judge McDonnell said it was accepted by the prosecution and the defence that there were two mobile phones in the senator's car and Callely was speaking into a device when he was stopped.
The judge accepted the Garda's evidence that the senator was holding a mobile phone while driving.
Judge McDonnell fined Callely €60 which must be paid within seven days or else he could be jailed for five days in default.
