DRIVERS are being warned that police will adopt a zero-tolerance approach when stiffer penalties for using a mobile phone behind the wheel come into force.

From tomorrow (March 1), drivers caught using their phones will be subject to a £200 fine and six points on their licence.

For newly-qualified drivers, anyone receiving six points within two years of passing their test will lose their licence, which means being caught using a phone just once could face a driving ban.

Police will tomorrow launch a week-long enforcement campaign across Durham and Cleveland force areas using unmarked cars.

A similar week of action in January caught 72 drivers in County Durham and Darlington and a further 61 in Cleveland.

Inspector Harry Simpson, from the Cleveland and Durham’s Specialist Operations Unit, said: “No-one can claim to be unaware this is against the law and also incredibly dangerous.

“Despite this education and media interest over 130 people were caught using their mobile phones last month in a week long campaign.”

He added: “There are clearly some people who feel the law doesn’t apply to them. But over the next week they will discover our officers are making this offence a priority and that we have a zero-tolerance approach.

“It is one of the most common complaints we receive.”

Ron Hogg, Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner for County Durham and Darlington, said: “These new penalties are a real deterrent to dangerous driving.

“But an even greater deterrent should be the knowledge that being distracted by a phone could result in an accident, serious injury to the driver and others, and even death.

“The phone call will wait. But if you kill someone, that is not something you can undo."