Romeo Beckham, the 23-year-old model and son of David and Victoria Beckham, has been convicted of using his mobile phone while driving his Porsche 911 in central London. The incident occurred in September last year when a police officer spotted him with both hands on his phone instead of the steering wheel at a red light.
Details of the Incident
On September 16, Metropolitan Police Pc Luke Short observed Beckham waiting at a red traffic light in Victoria Street, Westminster, just before 11.20am. The officer noted that Beckham appeared distracted, with an unrestrained dog sitting on the female passenger's lap and both occupants looking at mobile phones.
In his statement, the officer wrote: "As I passed the vehicle on its nearside, I looked down to my right and noted that there was an unrestrained dog sitting on the female passenger's lap. The female had her head down and was holding a mobile phone. I looked across at the driver. I saw that he too had his head tilted down and appeared to be looking down at a mobile phone he was holding low in his lap, near the base of the steering wheel. I could see that he was scrolling on the device with his thumbs."
Court Proceedings
At Westminster Magistrates' Court last Thursday, Beckham was convicted of being a driver not in a position to have proper control. He was fined £440 and received three penalty points on his licence. Magistrate Phillip Jordan also ordered him to pay £130 in costs and a £176 victim surcharge.
Police had offered Beckham the chance to pay a fine and attend a driver awareness course to avoid criminal proceedings, but he did not respond. The case was handled through the single justice procedure, which deals with driving offences in private hearings. Beckham did not enter a plea when written to at his luxury south-west London apartment.
Family History
The court case comes almost exactly seven years after his father, Sir David Beckham, was banned from driving for six months for using his mobile phone at the wheel. In 2019, the former footballer admitted to using his phone in slow-moving traffic in the West End and told the court he would miss driving his children to school while serving the ban.
Additional Context
Rule 57 of the Highway Code states that dogs must be "suitably restrained" in a vehicle, and drivers can be prosecuted for driving without proper control or careless driving if the animal causes a distraction. The officer used his discretion to offer Beckham words of advice concerning the insecure load of the dog.
Beckham's brush with the law came days after he debuted a new platinum blonde buzzcut at New York Fashion Week. Two days after the incident, he made his runway debut at London Fashion Week for the H&M show.
