Katie Price 'seen using mobile at wheel of horsebox'
Model Katie Price was seen by police using a mobile phone while driving a large pink horsebox, a court heard today.
She caused two other vehicles to move away as she drifted into their lane on the A23 in West Sussex on February 19, magistrates were told.
Prosecutors said the 32-year-old glamour model was seen on the phone for two to three seconds by two officers after they drove alongside her in a patrol vehicle following the “careless” manoeuvre.
Pc Phill Mann, of Sussex Police, told Mid Sussex Magistrates’ Court in Haywards Heath that he saw Price making a texting motion on an iPhone-type handset before pulling her over.
Price, married to cagefighter Alex Reid, who was also in the vehicle, denied using a mobile phone and told the officer she had been spraying perfume, Pc Mann said.
She denies not being in proper control of a vehicle.
Pc Mann told the court: ``I saw a person who I know to be Katie Price in the driver's position and in her right hand she had what appeared to be a mobile phone.
“She had her thumb on the phone, and appeared to be texting. It was slim, black and palm-sized, like an iPhone. I think that’s what I saw.”
As soon as she saw the police alongside her, she put the item down and slowed down before being pulled over with blue flashing lights, Pc Mann added.
He cautioned Price and told her she would be reported for using a mobile phone while driving and driving without due care and attention.
Describing her driving as “careless”, Pc Mann said: “I believe she said that she wasn’t using her mobile and that she was using perfume.
“She leaned back into the back of the cab and pulled a large bottle of perfume out of a large zip bag.
“I said that wasn’t the item I had seen. She got her phone out of the same bag and showed me that and said, ’Was it that?’.
“I couldn’t recall whether that was the same one I had seen. It had coloured gemstones on it. That’s not what I had seen in her hand.”
Pc Mann said he reported her before allowing her on her way, with Mr Reid sat in the front passenger seat.
During cross-examination, Mr Freeman said Pc Mann’s assertion that the horsebox had taken up 50% of lane two was a “gross exaggeration and you are mistaken in that fact”.
Mr Freeman suggested to the officer that the drifting was typical among drivers and happened “quite regularly” on the road.
He also cast doubt on Pc Mann’s claim that Price had been seen with a slim black phone, saying the gem-encrusted phone she produced for the officer was the only one she had.
“I suggest to you that your description was totally inaccurate to the extent that she didn’t put anything down, she just pulled over,” Mr Freeman told the officer.
Pc Mann replied: “I saw her hand drop to her right-hand side.”
Police community support officer Edward Mitchell said he immediately knew who the horsebox belonged to after seeing it on television.
He said: “I looked at the vehicle and saw Miss Price who I believe was texting on her phone.
“She was looking down at her phone pressing the phone with her right hand. She was texting or dialling a number. My view was very good.”
He said he told Pc Mann what he had seen and they decided to pull her over.
PCSO Mitchell stayed in the patrol car while Pc Mann went to question Price because “he had more powers”.
