A UKIP Parliamentary candidate found guilty of driving while using a mobile phone will turn to Europe in the fight to clear his name.

Kim Rose was ordered to pay £370 by Southampton magistrates after an undercover officer caught him allegedly using a device while driving in Hampshire.

Now the jeweller and businessman - who unsuccessfully fought the Southampton Itchen seat in May - is launching an appeal.

He claims his head was nestling against a pillow to ease neck pain and he was singing along to one his favourite songs at the time.

In a ironic twist the 2015 General Election candidate told magistrates he would take his case to the same European courts his party so notoriously shuns.

In the latest in a string of brushes with the law Rose, 58, from Burridge Road, Burridge, was found guilty of one count of using a mobile phone while driving. He denies the charges.

The court heard how Rose was the first driver stopped during a major police operation on Botley Road, Park Gate.

Plain clothes officer PC Lee Paddock spotted his black Mercedes driving past at 8.22am on June 25 of last year.

PC Paddock told the court he radioed colleagues after spotting the politicians’s head and shoulder “hunched up” through the vehicle’s open roof He said: “Instantly I thought he was on a mobile phone.”

He added: “I could hear a sound coming from his mouth, his lips moving and a black device on his shoulder.”

PC Adrian Berry, who pulled him over, told magistrates Rose’s body positioning “gave the impression” he was using a phone - despite not seeing one.

But Rose told the court the object was a pillow easing injuries sustained in a car crash in June 2013.

Demonstrating with a similar neck support he told magistrates he tried to show PC Berry the cushion and that he was on the way to the physiotherapist, adding: “I started to explain my position to him but once he got his note book out and cautioned me it was too late. He wasn’t prepared to listen.”

He claimed that he was also singing along to the Amen Corner hit “Paradise is Half as Nice” when it came on the radio - rather than speaking on a device.

But magistrate Jenny Pitt imposed a £200 fine, three points on his licence, £150 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

Afterwards Rose, who has 21 days to appeal to Southampton Crown Court, said: “I am absolutely stunned.

“I thought that hearing my medical problems that common sense will prevail.

“I’m going to to be calling on the European courts to help me out.

“It frightens me if people are convicted for more serious offences.”

As previously reported police dropped charges against Rose over allegations he gave away free sausage rolls at a party event in Weston, Southampton, in February.

He was also fined £600 and given three points on his licence at a trial in his absence at Basingstoke Magistrates Court after failing to provide police with information relating to speeding on The Avenue on November 18, 2013.

But it was reduced to £130 and three points when he eventually pleaded guilty to speeding and was resentenced at the same court on June 15.