Premier League striker Mohammed Kudus was caught by police using his mobile phone while driving his £100,000 Mercedes away from West Ham’s training ground.
The 24-year-old Ghana international was busted by a passing police officer while using his smart phone at the wheel of the vehicle.
Kudus was pulled over and explained he had been setting up the Sat Nav function on the handset in the incident on April 30 last year.
The Metropolitan Police offered a fixed penalty fine to settle the incident, and brought a prosecution when the footballer failed to respond.
At Lavender Hill magistrates court last week, Kudus was convicted of using a handheld mobile phone while driving a motor vehicle on a road.
He was fined £220, given six penalty points for his licence, and he was also ordered to pay £110 in costs and an £88 victim surcharge.
The incident was prosecuted in the Single Justice Procedure, meaning Kudus was spared having to appear at an open court hearing. Court records show he did not enter a plea to the charge when the case was sentenced in private.
PC James Palmer told the court he was riding a marked police bike at 1.22pm on April 30 in Wood Lane, Romford, when he spotted Kudus’ vehicle.
"I was approaching the set of traffic lights at the junction of Wood Lane and Whalebone Lane heading west", he said, in a statement.
"I was filtering through traffic when I noticed that the driver of this vehicle was using a hand-held mobile device whilst driving.
"The device was being held in their left hand, in front of themselves.
"The driver was engaging with the phone, I could see the screen was illuminated and the driver made repeated contact with the screen using their left thumb.
"They were using the device, their vision was engaged with the screen as well as their thumb and I could also see there seemed to be a delayed reaction to the gap increasing in front of them where traffic had moved off for the green phase of the lights."
The officer said his role, in road policing, involves looking out for key offences known as the ‘Fatal 4’ which are most associated with deaths and serious injuries on the road.
"One of the Fatal 4 is driving whilst using a mobile phone", he added.
PC Palmer said Kudus confirmed at the roadside he had been using the phone "for setting up the Sat-Nav function on their phone.
"I pointed out that they had in car services available and that indeed their Apple Car Play was set up."
In a separate prosecution, Chelsea forward Jadon Sancho has been fined £146 after he was caught speeding in his Mercedes G Class.
The 24-year-old, who is on loan at the west London club from Manchester United, was caught on a speed camera on the A40 in North Kensington going at 37mph in a 30 mph zone. The incident happened at just after 6am on July 7 last year.
It was the day after England’s quarter final clash with Switzerland at the European Championships, a tournament Sancho had missed out on. The following month, his switch to Chelsea was announced.
Sancho was late responding to a police letter so missed the change for an out-of-court fine. He pleaded guilty to the speeding charge and was handed three penalty points for his licence. On top of the fine, he was also ordered to pay £100 in costs and a £58 victim surcharge.
