Pret founder and Itsu boss Julian Metcalfe banned from driving for using phone at the wheel

Julian Metcalfe, the founder of Pret a Manger and current boss of Itsu, has been banned from driving after being convicted of using a mobile phone behind the wheel.

He claimed he was using the Waze navigation system for directions to visit his daughter, and that he didn’t know it was illegal to use a phone map in the car.

Metcalfe received six points on his licence plus a £600 fine, £860 in prosecution costs and a victim surcharge for the incident, which took place last November. The points, in addition to his prior six from speeding, meant a disqualification from driving for six months.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge, but was convicted earlier on Monday at the Lavender Hill magistrates’ court in Battersea, southwest London.

Prosecuter Fiona Hamilton said two separate officers had seen Metcalfe use the phone.

Metcalfe said that a police officer who voiced evidence of the crime had a “mistaken memory,” even though video footage showed Metcalfe apologising for using the phone, according to reports.

“I was going to visit my daughter, and it happened in a position of complete chaos in a thunderstorm on a busy roundabout,” Metcalfe told the court. He claimed he needed to use his fingers to keep the app running, according to reports.

“I know you not cannot make calls or take calls but I did not know you cannot use Waze. The officer implied that any use of the phone was illegal, therefore using Waze was illegal. That was news to me, I thought, ‘Crikey, I did not know that law’.”

“I presumed he was right and that using the phone was an offence. Afterwards I realised it is not illegal to use Waze on your phone,” he said.

Lauren Bates, defending, reportedly told the court Metcalfe had said that if it was illegal to use the navigation system without the device being handheld “he would have put his hands up and accepted responsibility”.

However, the chairwoman of the magistrates Elizabeth Evans said the guilty verdict came from “clear and compelling [police] evidence”, for example video footage of Metcalfe holding the phone.

Julian Metcalfe co-founded the sandwich chain Pret in 1984 with his college friend Sinclair Beecham, and later sold it for £364m in 2018. He now owns Japanese fast-food sushi chain Itsu.