Police slap Brits with coronavirus lockdown fines every five minutes with youths the worst offenders
POLICE slapped Brits with coronavirus lockdown fines every five minutes - with youths the worst offenders.
A total of 9,176 fines were issued in England and Wales in just four weeks with new data revealing more than a third of fines in England were handed out people aged between 18 and 24 and another 31 per cent going to those aged 25-34.
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And Thames Valley Police doled out 649 fines between March 27 and April 27, followed by Met Police and Lancashire police forces, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said.
In England, 82 per cent of the 8,877 fines were given to men.
And more than a third of fines were given to people aged between 18 and 24, with 31 per cent going to those aged 25-34.
In Wales, 299 FPNs have been issued in the same timeframe.
According to the NPCC, almost 400 of the penalties were issued to repeat offenders. One person was even fined six times for refusing to follow the lockdown guidelines.
Authorities had given police the ability to slap Brits with £60 fines if they failed to comply after officers engaged with them to stop the spread of the virus.
This means that £266,310 will be collected in coronavirus lockdown fines in England alone.
NPCC Chair Martin Hewitt said: “As the latest provisional figures on the number of fines issued show, the vast majority of people continue to do the right thing, staying at home in order to protect the NHS and help save lives.
“The figures also show our use of the enforcement powers remains proportionate with just 0.02 per cent of the population in England being issued with a fine
“I want to thank people for continuing to follow the regulations – I recognise it’s not easy and that this is a challenging time for us all.
“Our approach of – engage, explain and encourage, and only as a last resort, enforce –will continue. It is working.
“I urge the public to keep going, keep following the advice: stay home, protect the NHS and save lives."
Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police John Campbell, said the fines were primarily due to people travelling for non-essential reasons.
He added: "I must stress the fines we have issued represents a small fraction of the 2.3 million population of the Thames Valley.
"The vast majority of the public are taking notice and for this, I once again, sincerely thank them."
DAC Matt Twist, who is leading the Met’s response to the pandemic, said: “Met officers are engaging, explaining and encouraging people to follow the rules and only enforcing as a last resort.
"Our officers have spoken to tens of thousands of people in the past few weeks, across a city of 10 million people, so I think that the figures released today show that the vast majority of people are indeed following the rules which are there to keep us all safe.
“We’ve seen the number of fines we’ve had to issue gradually reducing in the past two weeks but I can assure you our officers will enforce where necessary to protect the NHS and save lives."
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It comes after a top cop warned against "overzealous" policing during the lockdown.
Assistant commissioner Neil Basu said he feared some extreme reactions from forces could lead to a backlash from the public.
Lockdown measures announced by Boris Johnson last month mean people should only leave their homes if they are travelling to work as a key worker, getting vital food supplies, a daily dose of exercise or ensuring the welfare of relatives.
But civil liberties group Big Brother Watch branded the force's move as "sinister" and "counter-productive".
Meanwhile critics on Twitter accused the force of "nanny policing" - as the country gets to grips with the lockdown.
And Mr Johnson will tonight brace Britain for the lockdown to continue into June - as he appears at his first press conference since his own coronavirus fight.
The PM will host No10’s daily 5pm press conference for the first time in a month, since he was struck down by the virus himself, but it's thought he will be cautious about changing any measures.
Only small tweaks to the lockdown rules are on the cards, if anything at all.
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The measures are set to be reviewed by May 7, and the Government insists nothing will change before then.
The coronavirus laws have to be looked at every three weeks, which would take us to the last few days of May before anything major is changed.
The PM - fresh from his return to work this week and his partner giving birth yesterday to a baby boy - will use the presser to warn that while infection rates are falling well, the government’s top scientists have warned him that easing up on the restrictions now is still very high risk.
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