Claim that Top Gear's Clarkson drove while on phone

9:48am Tuesday 11th March 2008

A COUPLE claimed today to have photographed Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson talking on his mobile phone while driving.

Adam Blake, 22, and Hayley Byford, 21, say they saw Clarkson on the phone as he did 70mph in a rare 1970s 6.3-litre green, left-hand drive V8 600 Grosser Mercedes on the M40 in Oxfordshire.

Mr Blake told the Mirror newspaper: "We could not believe that wed caught him out. I used to watch him every week on Top Gear and he was always banging on about the new driving laws.

"My girlfriend saw he was on his mobile. She grabbed hers and took a picture of him."

The newspaper claimed it later confronted Clarkson at his Chipping Norton home where he first denied being in the car and, on seeing the picture, said: "Er, that isn't a phone."

Clarkson then reportedly said: "Look, I write a column for another newspaper. Im not allowed to talk you."

Drivers caught using mobiles at the wheel face three points on their licence and a £60 fine.

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