THE number of motorists caught driving and using mobile phones has risen by nearly 75 per cent in a year, The Times has learnt.

Figures from 45 of Britain’s 52 police forces show that the number of fixed penalty notices issued to drivers caught using phones on the road has risen from 80,000 in 2004 to more than 140,000 last year. The proceeds for the Treasury exceed £7 million.

Some forces have been checking speed-camera pictures for drivers using mobile phones while others are using routine automatic number plate recognition checks to catch motorists chatting and driving.

Next year penalties for driving while using a handheld mobile will rise from £30 to £60. On top of this the offence will carry a three-point driving licence endorsement.

Figures collected by The Times show the risk of being caught by police differs widely across the country.

Drivers are most likely to be caught on their mobile phones in Northern Ireland, where one in 103 members of the population has received a fixed penalty notice.

One in 195 people in the Central Scotland Police area has been fined, with drivers in urban areas such as Manchester, London and Merseyside also likely to be penalised. Just one in 1,139 Sussex residents has been fined, while Devon and Cornwall and Humberside Police were also less likely to impose the fixed penalties.

The £30 fines were introduced in December 2003, after research indicated that driving while using a handheld mobile phone quadrupled the risk of having a collision. Talking on a hands-free set is still allowed.

At the time the Home Office suggested that a maximum of 100,000 motorists would be caught each year. But police forces say they have had to abandon the softly-softly approach, because drivers refuse to face up to the risks of driving while on the phone.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The 100,000 figure in the Regulatory Impact Assessment was the best guess at the time. Obviously, increased enforcement is to be welcomed.”

Police forces said that in an initial period of grace drivers had been let off with a warning. Monitoring had been stepped up, motorists having been reluctant to stop using their phones.

A spokeswoman for Merseyside Police, where the number of fines issued increased by 210 per cent from 2004 to 2005, said: “We have had several well-publicised campaigns which involved sending out increasing numbers of police on to the roads at peak times.

“It’s a key part of the law for us along with other driving offences.”

She added that in addition to police patrols, any footage captured on speed cameras that showed people using a mobile phone while driving was also referred to the force.

Northamptonshire Police recorded a 216 per cent rise in the number of motorists caught between 2004 and 2005. A spokesman said: “Initially when the legislation came in in 2003 the force decided to give motorists a bit of grace. As things went along, it became clear that the message wasn’t getting across and that we had to harden up our approach.”

Although patrols remain the most common method of catching drivers, the implementation of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) has also contributed to the rise in fines.

The Home Office said the introduction of automatic recognition, whereby moving cars have their numberplates read via a video camera and matched against computer databases, had led to more vehicles being observed and more drivers being caught.

In 2005 Lancashire Police caught 300 motorists on the phone during such recognition operations. A spokeswoman said: “ANPR means that the officers manning the camera can see people who are on the phone and radio ahead to other officers to intercept them.”

Sheila Rainger, of the RAC Foundation said: “Driving while using a mobile phone is a hazard and we support the law being enforced. I don’t think that the increase reflects more people breaking the law but rather the result of a highprofile campaign by the police to enforce the law.”

An hour in Telephone Place, SW6

Nearly every driver has done it but, despite the new figures from the police forces of Britain, the vast majority have yet to be caught.

One day last month, a Times photographer stood beside a junction in the appropriately named Telephone Place in Fulham, West London and, in less than an hour, captured six motorists chatting on their mobile handsets while driving in heavy traffic.

Most of them seemed oblivious to both the photographer and the law as they continued on their way, with one hand on the wheel