Covid: Scarborough pair's £600 fines for twice breaking rules

Over 60 fixed penalty notices were issued in Scarborough alone over the last seven days, police said

Two people have been fined £600 each for twice breaching Covid rules after being caught at two separate parties on the same night.

The pair were first fined after being found at a gathering in Scarborough at 22:00 GMT on Saturday, according to North Yorkshire Police.

Officers then discovered them again three hours later at another party four miles away.

The force said it had issued 186 Covid penalty notices over the last week.

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According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Supt Mike Walker told a meeting of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum that it was the highest number of fines issued since the new coronavirus lockdown began.

Supt Walker said some people "did not care" they were breaking the rules.

"For the reckless minority who think the regulations do not apply to them, we will continue to actively target those blatant breaches while providing a highly visible and reassuring presence for the wider community who are doing the right thing," he said.

Of the 186 penalty notices issued in the last seven days, 64 were in the Scarborough district and 55 were in York.

'Blatant breaches'

A total of 48 of the Scarborough fines were given to residents and 16 to visitors.

Supt Walker said 15 people from Manchester had been fined after they visited Whitby, with one group telling officers they had come to the resort to "look at the sea".

Other incidents included a couple from Hull who went to Grosmont for a walk and three people from Leeds who went to Selby to look around a derelict building.

Supt Walker added: "These are clearly blatant breaches of the health protection regulations. I'm sure those people would have known they were doing wrong and probably thought they would not get caught."

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