Hundreds of drivers fined for mobile use

MORE than 200 people have been caught using a mobile phone while driving in just 14 days.

Police Scotland said it was “disappointed” that 210 drivers were stopped in the fortnight when heavier penalties were introduced.

Drivers who are stopped while using a mobile phone are now issued with six penalty points on their licence and a £200 fine after the penalties were doubled on March 1.

In the first five days of the law change, police said 42 people were charged or reported.

Deputy head of road policing for the force, Superintendent Fraser Candlish, said: “While it’s clear proportionately more people were caught in the 10 days before the new penalties being introduced, this coincided with a period when there was a great deal of advertising and publicity highlighting the change.

“It’s disappointing that in the first five days of the new penalties being implemented, more than 40 drivers were still prepared to put the lives of themselves and other road users at risk by using such devices while driving.” AS a child George Wyllie, one of Scotland’s most popular and prolific artists, attended Craigton Public School, near Govan, Glasgow, and yesterday, youngsters from the modern Craigton Primary found out about the inspirational and colourful character from his daughter, Louise, and arts journalist Jan Patience.

They have written a book about the artist , who died in 2012, and they shared some of his life and work with the children. Pupils also got the chance to make paper boats, in keeping with one of his most famous works, the Paper Boat, which he launched in the city in 1989 and sailed to New York in homage to Glasgow’s shipbuilding industry.

Ms Wyllie said: “In the last years of his life, there was nothing my father liked better than taking a run up to Glasgow from Greenock to Craigton Primary, where he would sit outside in the car and reminisce. Picture: Kirsty Anderson