Groundbreaking laws to crack down on motorists using mobile phones have had little effect in Kent.

Even the increase in fines this year from £40 to £60 is not getting through to the county's motorists.

Exclusive figures revealed to KentOnline show there has been only a two per cent increase in the number of penalties issued between February and June, compared to the same period a year ago.

On February 27 this year, the non-endorsable fixed penalty notice was changed to £60, with three penalty points endorsable fixed penalty.

Since then and June 20 this year a total of 1,541 penalty notices were issued.

That compares with the same time last year, when 1,507 drivers were caught.

Sgt Mark Lamb, head of forensic and collision investigations at Kent Police, says this is because more officers have opted to give advice rather than fines.

He said: “As time goes by the police will start to adopt a far more zero tolerance approach to phone enforcement.

“We are prepared to accept for a while that it takes time for the message to get through to the public but there will come a cut-off point when it’s going to become pure enforcement.

“At the moment the message is taking a long time to get through to the motorist. A lot of people still think it's just a few pounds like a parking fine but as time progresses and they start to appreciate that it is actually points on your licence that has a long-term effect.

"Every three points you accumulate is three points nearer to losing your licence completely and as that becomes more widely known the compliance will start to increase.”

Mr Lamb admits the level of non-compliance in Kent is worryingly high, but accepts this is due to the public not considering it as a serious offence.

He added: “The use of mobile phones hasn’t yet attracted the level of public unacceptance that other offences such as drink and driving and excess speed have. There are still people willing to take a chance for convenience sake.

“It’s very selfish. They are more interested in the convenience of receiving a phone call and they put this at a higher priority than the duty of safety to other road users, which is worrying.

“We need to hammer home the message that it’s an anti-social act and not just us being picky with motorists. It generally has safety implications.”