Since Victoria Beckham is not touring with the Spice Girls, maybe she’ll have some free time to chauffeur around her husband, David Beckham? The retired soccer player was hit with a six-month driving ban on Thursday, May 9, for using his cellphone behind the wheel.
David, 44, appeared at the Bromley Magistrates’ Court in London, where District Judge Catherine Moore told him there was “no excuse” for him to use his phone while driving, according to BBC News. He received six penalty points on his driver’s license, adding to the six he already had from a previous speeding offense.
The former athlete, who attended the hearing in a dark gray suit and tie, was also ordered to pay a £750 fine (approximately $976), £100 in prosecution costs ($130) and a £75 surcharge fee ($98) within seven days.
David had pleaded guilty to using his phone while driving his Bentley in central London in late November 2018. Prosecutor Matthew Spratt said a member of the public spotted the former Manchester United star “operating a handheld device at knee level” while driving in “slowly moving” traffic along Great Portland Street in the West End.
“Instead of looking straight forward, paying attention to the road, he appeared to be looking at his lap,” the prosecutor said during the court hearing, according to the BBC.
David’s defense attorney, Gerrard Tyrrell, claimed his client had “no recollection of the day in question or this particular incident,” but acknowledged that “there is no excuse for what took place.”
Tyrrell also told the court that the father of Brooklyn, 20, Romeo, 16, Cruz, 14, and Harper, 7, has always found driving to be a relaxing pastime. “He takes his children to school each day when he can and he picks them up when he can, and actually to deprive them of that is something that he will acknowledge,” the lawyer added.
David and Victoria, 45, have been married since 1999.
Us Weekly has reached out to David’s rep for comment.
