Romeo Beckham fined after phone use and loose dog in Porsche

Romeo Beckham, 23, has been fined £440 and given three penalty points after police said he was scrolling on his phone with both hands while stationary at a red light in a Porsche 911 Carrera, with an unrestrained dog in the passenger seat. The case turned a celebrity sighting in Westminster into a reminder that handheld distraction, and a loose animal in the cabin, can bring the same legal consequences in a supercar as in any other car.

The incident was recorded on September 16, 2025, at about 11.20am on Victoria Street in central London. Metropolitan Police Pc Luke Short said he saw Beckham at the wheel with both hands on his phone, scrolling with his thumbs, while a woman in the passenger seat was also looking at her phone and had the dog in her lap. Short said Beckham was “distracted” and did not have proper control of the vehicle.

Beckham was convicted of being a driver not in a position to have proper control of the vehicle at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Alongside the £440 fine, he was ordered to pay £130 in costs and a £176 victim surcharge.

The case lands in the middle of a hard-edged set of UK driving rules. GOV.UK says drivers can get six penalty points and a £200 fixed penalty for holding and using a phone, sat nav, tablet or any device that can send and receive data while driving, or face a court fine of up to £1,000. Drivers can also be prosecuted for not being in proper control of the vehicle.

The Highway Code is equally clear about pets and other animals in cars: they should be suitably restrained so they cannot distract the driver or injure themselves in a sudden stop. Pc Short said he used discretion to offer advice about the dog as an insecure load, underlining how quickly a minor lapse can become a safety issue.

The episode carries an added family echo. It comes about seven years after Sir David Beckham was banned from driving for six months in 2019 after using his phone while driving in London. High-profile cases rarely change the rules, but they can make them harder to ignore: a red light, a screen and an unrestrained dog are enough to bring traffic law into sharp focus, whether the car is a Porsche 911 Carrera or a family saloon.