The age of Britain’s oldest driver caught using a phone behind the wheel in the last three years has been revealed.
Almost 100,000 UK motorists have been issued six penalty points and minimum fines of £200 for illegally operating handheld devices while driving between January 2022 and the end of October 2024, DVLA records show.
‘CU80’ endorsements added to licences for a ‘breach of requirements as to control of the vehicle, such as using a mobile phone’ totalled 95,841 over the 34-month period, the Government agency disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information request.
Motorists in their thirties committed the highest share of offences, with 32,363 prosecutions for people between 31 and 40, which accounts for a third of endorsements.
More surprising is the 84 motorists in their eighties who were also caught using a device while driving, and three licence holders in their nineties.
As part of efforts to curb the number of motorists handling phones at the wheel, punishments were doubled from three points and £100 fines from 1 March 2017.
And from March 2022, the Government introduced tougher ‘zero tolerance’ rules to ban touching a phone almost entirely.
Authorities and police forces across the country are also using Artificial Intelligence (AI) cameras at the roadside to identify drivers who illegally use phones and fail to wear seatbelts behind the wheel.
Three drivers in their nineties were caught using a mobile phone or handheld device behind the wheel between 2022 and the end of October 2024. Can you guess the age of the oldest?
The oldest driver of all to receive a CU80 endorsement between 2022 and October 2024 was the ripe age of 98, Select Car Leasing’s FOI request to the DVLA revealed.
The motorist’s identity or location can’t be revealed by the agency.
While there is no upper age limit for driving in the UK, once motorists reach 70 they must apply to renew their licence, and renew every three years thereafter.
And while they do need to declare any potential health issues that may impact their ability behind the wheel, they do not need to resit a driving test to remain on the road.
Remarkably, the data also showed 36 licence endorsements for mobile phone use for drivers aged 14, 15 and 16 years old – before they’re even old enough to attempt to pass their test.
News that motorists in their thirties are most likely to be caught using a device at the wheel comes just days after UK rapper Stormzy, 31, received a nine-month ban after an undercover police officer snared him using his phone behind the wheel of his £225,000 Rolls Royce Wraith.
Drivers in their twenties accounted for a quarter of all endorsements, while a fifth were issued to motorists in their forties.
Motorist caught committing such an offence will have the enforcement on their licence for four years from the date it was first issued.
Mark Tongue, chief executive and co-founder of the leasing company, said: ‘Age is no barrier to being hit with a fine and points on your licence for being distracted by a mobile phone and all motorists, no matter how experienced they are, need to be aware of the dangers.
‘It’s eye-opening to see such an elderly driver being collared by police after reaching for their phone, but perhaps not surprising given how technology has creeped into all aspects of our lives, no matter how old we might be.
‘After all, age doesn’t always equate to wisdom.’
In March 2022, the laws around mobile phone use behind the wheel became much stricter as the Department for Transport declared a ‘zero tolerance’ approach. It became illegal to use a handheld mobile phone while driving under virtually any circumstance, including illuminating the screen, checking notifications, and even unlocking the device.
Touching a phone is only allowed when calling emergency services or to use tap-and-pay at tolls and drive-through restaurants.
Overall, there were 39,515 licence endorsements for both new and old motorists for CU80 prosecutions in 2023 – a 16 per cent jump from the 34,062 endorsements in 2022.
However, there had been just 22,264 endorsements in 2024 up to the end of October – indicating that prosecutions are falling despite the introduction of new roadside AI camera equipment that can identify motorists driving on the phone.
AI cameras are being deployed at the roadside across the country to catch drivers not wearing seatbelts and using their phone behind the wheel
The AI cameras can be mounted to a trailer or vehicle and are positioned higher than traditional speed or traffic cameras
National Highways and police forces across England have extended an ongoing trial of the technology that began in 2021, which will now run until March.
The 10 police forces taking part in the rollout are Greater Manchester, Durham, Humberside, Staffordshire, West Mercia, Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Norfolk, Thames Valley Police and Sussex.
The trial is aimed at helping police forces to understand how AI technology could work on National Highway roads and shape any nationwide rollout.
Cameras can be mounted to a trailer or vehicle and are positioned higher than traditional speed or traffic cameras.
In the future, AI cameras would be attached to gantries on motorways in the trial regions.
AI traffic cameras can be attached to vehicles or trailers so they are easily movable to different parts of the region
The technology, developed by Acusensus, ‘provides automated recognition of people using mobile phones while driving in order to enforce traffic safety laws intended to prevent distracted driving’.
They capture footage of passing vehicles (it can track objects moving up to 186mph), which is then run through AI to detect whether someone is using their smartphone while driving or if someone in the car is not wearing a seatbelt.
Two photos are taken: one of a shallow angle which captures if a driver has a phone to their ear and checks whether a seat belt is being worn, and a second deeper angle which can see if a person is texting in front of them.
The AI footage is then examined by a human to confirm that the software is correct and an offence has indeed been committed.
If the human check confirms that an offence has been committed then the driver is issued with a penalty charge notice.
But if the image is incorrect and shows that no offence has been committed then Acusensus says it will be immediately deleted from the archives.
DVLA data supplied to Select Car Leasing also revealed the worst offending locations where drivers have had CU80 endorsements added to a licence from 1 January 2022 to 27 October 2024.
Drivers in London received the most endorsements, ahead of motorists in Bradford and Leeds.
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