SCOTS are the worst drivers in the UK for using their mobile phones while behind the wheel, new research has found.

Motorists in Motherwell came top of a league table in produced from new research based on official figures of the number of phone-using drivers caught by police.

Drivers in the Lanarkshire town have be caught more times than those in any other area of the UK, while seven other areas in Scotland appear on a list of the top ten places where the most fines were issued.

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Offenders get three penalty points and a £100 fine for using their phone while driving, and figures show that 3.29 per cent of motorists in the Motherwell postcode area currently have the offence on their licence.

The Glasgow postcode area at 2.59 per cent is the second worst offender, based on data from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

Third on the list was the Kilmarnock area, with 2.3 per cent of drivers caught using their phones on the road while Paisley was fourth at 2.06 per cent.

Scotland as a whole was the worst region in the UK for the offence with 1.51 per cent of drivers across the country caught out followed by London at 0.82 per cent.

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Worcester and Essex had the least number of drivers with the offence on the record with just 0.21 per cent in the areas caught.

The data was obtained from the DVLA by car price comparison website Car Keys.

A DVLA spokesman said: "Using a mobile phone and other hand-held devices, whilst driving, is a criminal offence. Studies have shown this to be a serious road safety risk. If this happens whilst driving a large vehicle such as a bus or lorry, the risk is even greater."

A spokesman for Car Keys said: "We published data highlighting the most likely places to come across drivers using their mobile phones whilst behind the wheel.

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"Data collected by the Driver’s Vehicle Licence Agency (DVLA) and obtained by Car Keys has pinpointed the worst places in Britain for driving offence code CU80 as well as praising the safest areas too.

"Scotland filled the top eight worst areas in Britain. The least likely places to encounter a driver using their mobile phone are all in either West Midlands or in the South West."

Scotland has been the site of a number of high-profile crackdowns on drivers using mobiles while behind the wheel in recent years.

Tim Shallcross, head of technical policy at the Institute of Advanced Motoring, said that having a single force in Scotland made it easier to implement an anti-phone policy.

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He said: "I don;t think that there are more drivers using mobile phones in Scotland than there are in Manchester, Cardiff and London.

"But the fact that there's just one police force makes it easier for any blitz on using mobile phones while driving to be effective, and that's being what's seen in these figures."

Between 2009 and 2014 there were 3,611 reported accidents "occurred where at least one driver" was on their phone.

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Earlier this year, it was announced that drivers caught using hand-held mobiles could face tougher penalties under new plans being considered by ministers.

The number of penalty points given to a motorist using their phone while driving could rise from three to four and the fine could be raised from £100 to £150.

The Department of Transport cited research suggesting nine per cent of motorists regularly take "selfies" when behind the wheel.