Frank Lampard to fight driving charge
Lampard was filmed on April 27 and the video was sent to the police
The former Chelsea manager Frank Lampard faces a criminal trial for allegedly driving while on the phone after he was reported by a cyclist who has previously caught the boxer Chris Eubank and the film director Guy Ritchie.
Mike Van Erp claims he saw Lampard talking on a phone and clutching a cup of coffee, as he controlled the steering wheel of his Mercedes with his wrist while sitting in traffic in South Kensington, central London.
The cyclist filmed Lampard on April 27 and sent the video to police, saying he was “pretty disgusted” with the former England player’s driving, according to the Evening Standard.
Lampard, 43, has now been charged with driving while using a mobile phone. He denies the offence and has hired the law firm of Nick Freeman, who has earned the nickname Mr Loophole for his success in achieving acquittals in driving cases.
Van Erp uses a helmet-mounted GoPro camera and regularly hands over dossiers of evidence against motorists he thinks have broken the law.
This year he was behind the prosecution of Eubank, 55, the former world champion, who was caught running a red light in his Rolls-Royce convertible. Last year he reported Ritchie, 53, for driving while using his phone, landing the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels director with a six-month ban.
In written evidence to Bromley magistrates’ court, Van Erp described the incident with Lampard. “I noticed this driver of a black Mercedes 4x4 holding a coffee in his right hand, and a phone in his left,” he said. “I could see him talking on the phone . . . whilst resting his right inside wrist on the steering wheel.”
The Metropolitan Police said that Lampard admitted being behind the wheel and was offered a fixed-penalty notice but chose not to pay it. He has been charged with “using a handheld mobile phone/device while driving a motor vehicle on a road”. A letter from Freeman & Co said Lampard denies the charge and intends to fight the case.
A magistrate, sitting in private in the single justice procedure, adjourned Lampard’s case this week for a trial at City of London magistrates’ court on January 17.
