Motorists caught using mobile phones while driving will be liable for a £60 fine, double the previous fine, and will have three points automatically put on their licence from tomorrow.
The harsher laws are in response to a number of surveys which continually prove that driving while talking on a hand-held device lengthens reaction times and therefore is highly dangerous for other road users.
But motorists need to beware that they could be caught not only by passing patrol cars but also by gatsos, which are primarily used for snapping speeders.
Meredydd Hughes, the head of roads policing for the Association of Chief Constables and the chief constable of South Yorkshire, told the Evening Standard that drivers would be prosecuted even if police are tracking vehicles' speeds.
"If officers using mobile cameras see someone using a hand-held phone, whether with their own eyes or through the lens of their camera, then they are fair game," he said.
"Automated speed cameras will remain specifically to catch speeding drivers and there is no policy currently to trawl photographic evidence from speed camera images to target mobile phone users."
However, he added the policy may be changed so that cameras may be used to catch mobile phone users more widely in the future.
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