The UK's most up-to-date social housing and public sector news website
Harriet Harman faces charges over car crash
Other Central Government stories
- Pickles blasts prayers ban ruling - 'worship is hard-fought British liberty'
- Tenants see 'loss of £100,000' in first wave of housing benefit cuts
- Repossessions 'lowest since 2007' as councils handed new 'safety net' cash
- Liverpool's first directly-elected mayor to oversee 'City Deal' with Government
- Stephen Greenhalgh appointed Government 'housing champion'
Advertisement
Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman was today facing prosecution
for her involvement in a car prang in which she was allegedly using
her mobile phone, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
A court summons will be served on the MP for Camberwell and Peckham
after a police probe into the crash in Dulwich, south-east London
on the afternoon of July 3.
Ms Harman is facing charges of driving without due care and
attention and driving while using a hand-held mobile telephone, the
CPS said.
A spokeswoman for Ms Harman said: "Ms Harman strongly refutes the
allegations and will deny the charges."
Driving without due care and attention carries a maximum fine of
£5,000 and an endorsement of up to nine points on your
licence.
A CPS statement said: "The Crown Prosecution Service has decided
there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to
prosecute the Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP for the offences of driving
without due care and attention and driving whilst using a hand-held
mobile telephone in relation to an incident on 3 July 2009 in
Peckham, London.
"The Metropolitan Police Service provided papers to the CPS on 9
November 2009 which were reviewed by the Special Crime Division in
accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.
"An MPS employee will now attend a magistrates' court in order to
obtain a summons to be served on Ms Harman."
Ms Harman has several previous driving convictions.
She was banned from driving for seven days and fined £400
after admitting speeding at 99mph on the M4 near Swindon,
Wiltshire, in January 2003.
Ms Harman was said to be taking her son back to Bristol University
after the Christmas break.
The penalty, which was criticised by motorists' organisations as
too lenient, was issued just as it was announced that court fines
should be more closely linked to offenders' incomes.
She was also fined £60 and given three penalty points for
exceeding a temporary speed limit in Suffolk in April 2007.
The maximum penalties for driving while using a mobile phone are a
£1,000 fine and a licence endorsement of three points.
The law banning driving with a mobile phone was introduced in 2003
when Ms Harman was the Solicitor General.
After studying politics at York University, Ms Harman qualified as
a lawyer and went on to be Legal Officer at the National Council
for Civil Liberties.
