Friends fined £600 for visiting Cotswolds during lockdown
Three people have been fined £600 for flouting coronavirus lockdown rules after driving 21 miles to visit a Cotswolds tourism hotspot.
The group of friends from Oxfordshire were penalised for engaging in non-essential travel after they were spotted by police officers in Stow-on-the-Wold on Thursday 14 January.
The Cotswolds have witnessed a sharp rise in coronavirus infections with 235 positive cases being confirmed in one week.
Writing about the breach on Twitter, Cotswold Police said: “Three friends who had driven 21 miles to Stow on the Wold from Oxfordshire have been fined £200 each for breaking lockdown rules.
"Officers stated that they had no reasonable excuse to be in a car together so far from home."
The £200 fines administered to each individual comes just days after Priti Patel warned officers would be faster in issuing fines as the pandemic approaches its most ‘critical point’'
The home secretary was accompanied at the press conference by the chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Martin Hewitt, who backed the push for stricter lockdown rule policing.
He said: “It's important for me to be really clear, at this critical time we will have more officers out on dedicated patrols to take action against the small few who are letting us all down."
The current lockdown rules include banning all non-essential travel and the government urges members of the public to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives.
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