Are we to believe that your headline "Mobile madness - cops catch seven drivers every day" (October 9) will fill drivers flaunting the law against driving while using a mobile with trepidation?

If so, I think you're seriously mistaken. There are 6,000 miles of roads in North Yorkshire, used by I'm sure tens of thousands of drivers every day.

These paltry detection and conviction statistics suggest perpetrators are probably far more likely to win the lottery than incur a fine and penalty points on their licences.

The figures actually have the opposite effect of what they intend, ie they suggest to me that drivers are highly unlikely to be nabbed.

I and others in this column have commented previously that one only needs to watch on any York road (or indeed anywhere else), at any time, day or night, and you'll easily spot seven drivers on their phones, every single hour of the day. Replicate that county-wide and you'd have literally hundreds of people caught risking the penalty.

Speaking of which, while I concur that three points on one's licence should be somewhat of a deterrent, the fine of £60, albeit doubled from the previous £30, is ludicrously low.

I've always thought fines should seriously inconvenience someone, not merely mildly annoy them. For most drivers, £60 can found relatively easily, whereas far tougher penalties, of say £500 to £1,000, such as those sought by the likes of safety campaigners Brake, will leave transgressors counting the cost of their actions. Only then will they begin to consider that it just isn't worth the risk.

Sadly, it's only by the threat of serious financial punitive measures that you will get people to potentially change their ways.

But even then, unless the numbers of convictions increase dramatically, I won't be holding my breath.

Graeme Rudd, Kerver Lane, Dunnington, York.