A glamour model has been told to pay more than £1,000 after being caught on her mobile at the wheel of her Maserati.
Babestation star Dannii Harwood, 35, from Bournemouth, was pulled over after an officer spotted her handling her mobile phone and looking at the screen while driving her car in slow-moving traffic.
The TV model, who has more than 230,000 Twitter and 140,000 Instagram followers, protested her innocence, insisting she was stationary at the time and was not using the device, but just plugging it in.
She said the officer who pulled her over, PC Sean Todd of Dorset Police’s traffic unit, made her ‘feel uncomfortable’ by posing questions about where she worked, when she suspected he already knew the answer.
Babestation star Dannii Harwood, 35, from Bournemouth, was pulled over after an officer spotted her handling her mobile phone and looking at the screen while driving her car in slow-moving traffic
The TV model, who has more than 230,000 Twitter and 140,000 Instagram followers, protested her innocence, insisting she was stationary at the time and was not using the device, but just plugging it in
Documents presented to magistrates from Harwood’s phone provider showed she had not made any outgoing calls or texts during the time of the offence.
But magistrates found the professionally trained dancer guilty of a driving offence and ordered her to pay £1,040 in fines and court costs.
Harwood, who often features on the front cover of adult magazine Mayfair, was spotted handling her phone while driving in Bournemouth, Dorset, during the evening rush hour traffic on June 13.
She said she’d been moving the phone to stop it falling from the central console into the footwell of her car and added that she had seen the motorcycle patrolman before moving her phone to a safer position as she did not think she was doing anything wrong.
Harwood, who lives in Bournemouth, told the court: ‘I could feel the phone on my elbow, it had come slightly unplugged. I was worried it was going to fall and go into the footwell.
‘He (PC Todd) commented about my car, asked if it was mine and where I was going.
Documents presented to magistrates from Harwood’s phone provider showed she had not made any outgoing calls or texts during the time of the offence
She was found guilty of one charge of ‘driving a motor vehicle while not in position to have a full view’ at Poole Magistrates Court
‘He then asked where I worked. I work in the adult industry and I was under the impression he knew the answer, which was a bit awkward.
‘He made me feel uncomfortable. I told him I wasn’t using the mobile phone I was plugging it back in.’
However, prosecution solicitor Alison Saunders put it to Harwood that PC Todd was simply engaging her in conversation as part of his job while the necessary checks were carried out.
Harwood, who has previously stated that her job pays her as well as a long-haul pilot, was fined £360, ordered to pay a victim service charge of £60 and court costs of £620. Her driving licence was also endorsed with three penalty points
Ms Saunders also reiterated to court how Harwood asked PC Todd to write an explanatory note on the ticket he issued at the roadside, which she signed.
These words read: ‘I was only plugging it in. It was slow moving traffic. It was falling (the phone) and distracting me.’
She was found guilty of one charge of ‘driving a motor vehicle while not in position to have a full view’ at Poole Magistrates Court.
Harwood, who has previously stated that her job pays her as well as a long-haul pilot, was fined £360, ordered to pay a victim service charge of £60 and court costs of £620. Her driving licence was also endorsed with three penalty points.