fwiw (not much), your code works on win2k/perl 5.8.4./DBI 1.45/SQLite 1.07. As expected, it says:

'Fred Bloggs', '233-7777'
'Sanjay Patel', '999-4444'
2 rows
[download]

With all error checking added it also works. I tried hard to let it fail but couldn't. ;) erm... :(