On 25 February 2009 Lord Ahmed was sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment and banned from driving for one year for sending and receiving five text messages while driving in the dark on a motorway.

Sadly, shortly after sending and receiving the text messages, Lord Ahmed collided with a car that had crashed on the fast lane of a motorway because the driver had been drinking. The driver of the other vehicle was killed in the crash.

However, the sentencing judge made it clear that Lord Ahmed’s texting had no link to the fatal collision.

The sentencing judge did say that Lord Ahmed had to be imprisoned because of the ‘prolonged, deliberate, repeated and highly dangerous driving’, by which he meant sending and receiving the text messages.

This case is an example of the seriousness of using a handheld mobile phone while driving. It demonstrates that even those without any criminal record who have served the community are at risk of imprisonment where it has caused them to drive dangerously.