If a driver is caught using a hand-held mobile phone while their car engine is running, they face a fixed penalty of a £60 fine and three points on their licence.

But this isn't acting as a deterrent for the city's motorists – figures released to the Express using the Freedom of Information Act showed 1,016 fixed penalty tickets were issued by West Yorkshire Police's Wakefield Division between June 2007 and June 2008.

And the use of a mobile phone by a driver was a contributory factor in one accident which caused injury.

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But Philip Gwynne, of West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership (WYCRP), said the figure could be much higher.

WYCRP figures reveal that in 2007, 17 drivers and passengers died on the district's roads and another 78 were seriously injured.

Mr Gwynne said: "It is difficult to say how many, if any, were a direct result of using a hand-held mobile phone while driving, but it is the high-profile cases that highlight just how serious it is.

"Despite fines going up last year, it appears that the number of offences overall is slowly creeping up. Using a mobile phone is not just illegal it is dangerous.

"Drivers who think that they are all right to drive while on a mobile phone are arrogant and self-deluding."

One organisation drumming home the message of safe driving is Wakefield Advanced Motorists (WAM), which provides courses for drivers wanting to sharpen up their skills.

Graham Jones, from the group, said: "Mobile phones are one of the worst distractions there is, even using a hands-free kit can be dangerous. But you see more and more drivers every day in Wakefield with their phones stuck to their ears.

"They are not just playing with their own lives, but other people's, and that's what makes it so  worrying."

For more information on WAM, click here