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Romeo Beckham was convicted last week for using his mobile phone while behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 Carrera, with court papers revealing he had both hands on his phone and an unrestrained dog in the car at the time.
Beckham, 23, was pulled over in Westminster last September after Metropolitan Police PC Luke Short observed him at a red light on Victoria Street. The officer spotted the vehicle just before 11:20 in the morning on September 12. "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," Short said in his written statement to the court. "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."
The officer pulled Beckham over and offered words of advice regarding the dog. A female passenger in the car was also on her phone at the time, according to court papers reported by BBC News.
Beckham was convicted at Westminster Magistrates' Court last Thursday of being a driver not in a position to have proper control. He was fined £440, given three penalty points, and ordered to pay £130 in costs along with a £176 victim surcharge.
Beckham had been given the opportunity to pay a fine and attend a driver awareness course to avoid criminal proceedings, but he did not respond. He was then prosecuted through the single justice procedure, which handles driving offences in private hearings. He did not enter a plea when written to at his south-west London apartment, and was convicted on police evidence.
Details of the case only became public on Wednesday.
The model and son of Sir David and Victoria Beckham is not the first in his family to face a driving-related charge. His father Sir David was banned from driving for six months in 2019 for using his mobile phone at the wheel. At the time, he told the court a ban would mean he would not be able to drive Romeo and his siblings Cruz and Harper to school. That case was nearly seven years ago.
