A FARMER caught on his mobile phone while behind the wheel has been disqualified from driving.

Thomas Neil Gittins, 51, admitted using his phone when he was travelling along the A489 near Churchstoke in his Mitsubishi Shogun at 11.28am on March 16.

He told Welshpool Magistrates’ Court that he answered a phone call from his elderly father. “I am so frustrated and angry that I did it,” he said.

Gittins, a sheep farmer from Chirbury, added that being banned from driving for up to six months “causes me with utter fear” as he would need to take his animals to the vets and market, and pick up his children on weekends.

Chair of the magistrates’ bench Stephen Pembroke told Gittins: “We have heard you and we do not feel that there is exceptional hardship as you have friends and family around to help you”.

Gittins, of Wotherton Hall Farm, was banned from driving for six months and was given six points and a £100 fine, plus £85 costs and a £34 victim surcharge.