DRIVERS caught on their mobile phone while driving will face tougher punishments from today.

Penalties for motorists caught making a call, sending a message or using their mobile while driving will now double to a £200 fine and six penalty points on their licence following a change in the law.

If caught for a second time they will automatically be required to appear in court and will face a fine of up to £1,000 and a driving ban of up to six months.

Previously, drivers faced a maximum of three points and a £100 fine.

To increase awareness of the changes and to catch motorists who continue to take the risk of using their mobile phone while driving, Wiltshire Police will be taking part in a week of action following similar campaigns in January and last year.

In January, nationally, a total of 5,614 drivers were stopped – with 3,664 mobile phone offences being committed.

Wiltshire Police did not provide figures for the county.

Tri Force Roads Policing Inspector Mark Whitfield said: “Using mobile phones is one of the most dangerous behaviours for motorists. It puts drivers, passengers and other road users at risk of death or serious harm.

“As more and more people are using their phones when driving, we have to make it socially unacceptable. Like drink-driving, we have to work towards changing people’s attitudes.

“We want to keep our roads safe but drivers also need to take responsibility for their behaviour behind the wheel and exert some social pressure on family and friends who take this risk.”

Other changes to penalties which come into force today also affect people who are in their first two years of driving.

Their licence will automatically be revoked and they will have to re-sit their test.

The week-long crackdown is being led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council who back in November found that nearly 50 people were caught on their phones every hour, the highest ever total for a week of enforcement on distraction driving.

Wiltshire Police hope the crackdown campaign, which includes patrols in unmarked cars, will inform and educate people in hope of creating a negative stigma towards driving while using a mobile phone similar to that the public have for drink/drug drivers.

NPCC lead for roads policing, chief constable Suzette Davenport, said: “This issue has to begin with personal responsibility by drivers.

"We know that people are more likely to report other drivers using a phone than to view themselves as guilty of it. That has to change.

“Tougher penalties are a step in the right direction, but police forces and partners are working this week to make it socially unacceptable to use a mobile phone at the wheel.

“Across this week officers will continue to use innovative and intelligence-led tactics to catch and penalise people who are driving while distracted by a mobile phone. However, this is an attitudinal problem that we cannot simply enforce away by putting more officers on the roads.

“It is about more than what you might have to pay as a penalty – you could hurt or kill an innocent person on the roads by checking a text or taking a call. Don’t do it and don’t let others take the risk either.”

Research from the RAC has previously shown that the number of motorists who illegally use mobile phones while at the wheel is rising.