Romeo Beckham Fined for Using Phone While Driving

Romeo Beckham has been fined after being caught scrolling on his phone at the wheel of his Porsche 911 Carrera in central London.

The 23-year-old, son of former England captain David Beckham, was pulled over in Westminster last September when a police officer spotted him with both hands on his phone instead of the steering wheel while stationary at a red light.

A woman sat in the passenger seat was also looking at her phone, with an “unrestrained” dog on her lap, according to court papers.

Pc Luke Short, who stopped the car on Victoria Street just before 11.20am on 16 September, said Beckham appeared distracted and not in proper control of the vehicle.

“I looked across at the driver,” his statement read. “I saw that he ... had his head tilted down and appeared to be looking down at a mobile phone he was holding low in his lap, near the base of the steering wheel.”

The officer pulled the Porsche over and challenged Beckham at the roadside. He chose to give “words of advice” about the unsecured dog rather than pursue a separate offence over the animal.

Rule 57 of the Highway Code states that dogs must be “suitably restrained” in a vehicle. Failure to do so can lead to prosecution for driving without proper control or careless driving.

At Westminster magistrates’ court last Thursday, Beckham was convicted of being a driver not in a position to have proper control. Magistrate Phillip Jordan issued a £440 fine and endorsed his licence with three penalty points. Beckham was also ordered to pay £130 in costs and a £176 victim surcharge.

Police said he had previously been offered the chance to pay a fixed penalty and attend a driver-awareness course to avoid criminal proceedings, but he did not respond.

The case inevitably echoes his father’s high-profile brush with the law. Almost seven years earlier, David Beckham received a six-month driving ban for using his mobile phone at the wheel in slow-moving West End traffic in 2019. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder told the court at the time he would miss driving his children – Romeo, then 16, Cruz, then 14, and Harper, then 7 – to school during the suspension.

For Romeo, the incident came just days after he debuted a platinum-blond buzzcut at a New York Fashion Week event. Away from the catwalks and cameras, a moment’s lapse at a London traffic light has now left a mark on his driving record.