Covid: Four people given £10,000 fines after arrivals failed to declare travelled from red list country

Four people have been fined £10,000 for failing to declare they had landed in the UK after travelling from a red list country where coronavirus variants of concern have been identified.

The passengers, who arrived in the UK at Birmingham Airport, were identified by Border Force and told they could not leave the airport, West Midlands Police said.

It's not known from which country they had travelled.

Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd told a meeting held by the force's strategic policing and crime board: "By midday yesterday (Monday), on the first day of implementation, we have received six passengers who had declared travelling from a red list country, who were taken to the quarantine hotel.

"We also had four passengers who were identified as having travelled from a red list country, that hadn't declared it.

"So there are some people who have who have attempted to hide their routes but that's not worked out.

"They were identified and received £10,000 fines as a result."

Anyone found to have lied on passenger locator forms to conceal they had travelled from red list countries within ten days before arriving can now be sent to jail for ten years, following a government announcement last week.

• What are the new hotel quarantine rules? What are the 33 countries on the 'red list'?

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The new enforcement, along with a range of others, was brought in to improve quarantine compliance for those arriving in the UK, to help minimise the number of foreign Covid-19 variants being imported to the UK.

Anyone arriving in England from a red list country must quarantine for ten days in a hotel, and they must test negative for coronavirus twice before they are allowed to leave isolation.

A first test should be taken on day two of isolation and another on day eight.

Travellers must pay £1,750 before arriving, which will cover the cost of their hotel stay, transport to the hotel, and their coronavirus tests.

Those who test positive while in hotel quarantine could end up paying almost £3,000 for their hotel stay.

A positive result from the first test will extend a traveller’s stay by two nights at a cost of £304.

If the second test returns a positive reading, the guest must remain in their room for an additional eight nights and pay £1,216 - that would mean they must pay £2,966 in total.

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