Fined for rule breaking during "lock down"

Germanshepherdsmum

But they weren't fined were they Pammiel? So hardly relevant.

They were certainly threatened with fines and were at the receiving end of very heavy handed treatment which resulted in their daughter being readmitted to hospital. If they hadn’t captured the whole incident on camera and got the media involved, who knows what would have happened. I was making the point that sometimes things are not what they seem - in this instance a neighbour looking out of a window and interpreting it as an illegal get together when it was anything but that.

nadateturbe

Gagajo there are times when I got very angry at rule breaking being ignored. And felt not enough was being done to enforce them. But old people who weren't mobile enough to walk sitting beside their car enjoying the view? They were actually safer than those walking along the promenade.

This happened to me. I’m confined to a wheelchair and my elderly mum has dementia. We couldn’t get out to ‘exercise’ in the convention sense, so I packed her into the car and we drove all of two miles to a car park on the banks of the river, and just sat and shared a flask of coffee. We were only there 15 minutes or so and a PCSO tapped on the window and demanded to know what we were doing. I explained - through the closed window - that we were both disabled, lived locally and had come out for a change of scenery. I made it clear we hand’t and didn’t intend to get out of the car so were no threat to anyone. He could also clearly see the wheelchair in the back of the car. Didn’t make any difference - we were still threatened with a fine if we didn’t leave.

But they weren't fined were they Pammiel? So hardly relevant.

sazz1

Can someone please tell me why it was a criminal offence to sit outside alone and eat a sandwich?
Or why it was safe to eat a meal in a pub but not safe to just have a drink?
The 2 women who were fined for meeting in a car park with a coffee had the charge withdrawn as its ludicrous.
Our police put up a roadblock to try and force shoppers to use the nearest supermarket Sainsbury. People complained it was police favouring one business over others ie Lidl, Morrisons Tesco. Roadblock not there the next day.
If you were providing care or childcare like we were as daughter broke her ankle you could visit for that reason. She couldn't drive or take child to school. We were never stopped by police though.

I remember the case about the two women - they met up in a car park to go for exercise together and bought takeaway coffees. I think the charges were withdrawn because the police tried to present it as a social event rather than exercise, because they were drinking coffee. Their defence was that if it was illegal to drink coffee why was it legal for it to be sold.

I remember park benches being taped up in our local park and anyone eating a sandwich outside was moved on. I also well remember a local farm in our area setting up vending machines on their land for the sale of milk, plain and flavoured, and other items produced on their farm - the village was quite remote and the thinking was that it would make it easier for the villagers to access the produce without having risk travelling. The machines were housed under cover, there was a large car park and social distancing was observed at all times. The police waded in, turned customers away and tried to have them shut down ‘because Covid’. The locals objected because the only other source of the products on sale was via a Tesco store to which most people would have to drive. It made absolutely no sense and thankfully common sense prevailed in the end.

Without 6 different grandparents and an uncle babysitting a neighbours children there would have been 1 nurse less at our local hospital.

Germanshepherdsmum

*EV*, nobody was fined £10k unless they broke the rules in a big way and/or repeatedly. There was far more to that than wfh.

There was a local story about a couple whose neighbours reported them for having a ‘get together’ at their home during lockdown. Police arrived and there was footage shown on news bulletins here of them forcing their way into the house and threatening to arrest the husband. They were advised that they faced up to £10,000 in fines as it was described as a significant breach of the rules.

When the dust settled it turned out that the couple’s daughter had been discharged from hospital that day. If I remember rightly she had had treatment for a serious condition involving a succession of seizures which were life threatening. The ‘get together’ turned out to be the girl herself, the parents and their two other children, all of whom lived at the address. The others present were members of the district nurse team who had arrived by car, and that apparently was what had sparked the report to the police. The girl was still in a very fragile state and the father was trying to stop the police from barging their way in and causing distress - this was why he was threatened with arrest. The girl ended up having another seizure because of the stress and ended up back in hospital the same day. No rules broken but still reported and at the receiving end of some very heavy handed treatment. At the end of the day, no charges were brought, but things are seldom as they seem on the surface.

I have put on facebook that in view of partygate anyone who was fined should ask for it to be reimbursed, and if you haven't got round to paying your fine DON'T pay it, and the damned police abused their powers. I have zero respect for the scumbags.

Can someone please tell me why it was a criminal offence to sit outside alone and eat a sandwich?
Or why it was safe to eat a meal in a pub but not safe to just have a drink?
The 2 women who were fined for meeting in a car park with a coffee had the charge withdrawn as its ludicrous.
Our police put up a roadblock to try and force shoppers to use the nearest supermarket Sainsbury. People complained it was police favouring one business over others ie Lidl, Morrisons Tesco. Roadblock not there the next day.
If you were providing care or childcare like we were as daughter broke her ankle you could visit for that reason. She couldn't drive or take child to school. We were never stopped by police though.

Rules….. are for the obedience of fools ..but the guidance of wise men.

So many of the rules were illogical and over the top. No wonder people didn't stick to them.

Kim19

I would like to see every single person who was fined totally reimbursed.

Ah - so now we should pick and choose which laws we obey ..... a bit of a slippery slope I feel.

i do not know anyone who was fined, but plenty of people who should have been. i nearly got fined, i went to the supermarket, i was so stressed when i came out that i sat on a seat, then had an epilepsy seizure, (i don't pass out with mine) police came up to me and told me very sternly to move on, when i have a seizure i can't see in front of me or answer any questions as it sounds like mixed up words, i was told to move again or get fined, i managed to show them my epilepsy bracelet that i wear and they stayed with me until it passed. i did say to them afterwards that maybe they should find out why someone is sitting there on her own with her head down and shaking, also had a bright pink shopping trolley with me, before they start issuing threats.

All the way through the pandemic I've continued as normal but before anyone castigates me, my normal is totally different to the majority of people.
I'm disabled, considered to be EV and live alone with just my dog. I have absolutely no contact with my neighbours and my family/friends aren't nearby.
I leave my house once a week, I drive 9 miles to the supermarket and walk my dog around a lake about a mile from the supermarket then come home. Yes, I could use a closer store but finding somewhere to exercise the dog would mean clocking up just as much mileage, I need somewhere with plenty of benches because I can't walk very far without needing a sit down.
I can't order my groceries online to be delivered because I have a very strange diet which means my grocery bill is only around £15/week which would mean paying a £4-5 penalty for delivery which is ridiculous in comparison to the amount i need to spend.
So yes, I carried on as normal and even when this pandemic becomes endemic, my behaviour won't change.

Nanatoone

Boots on the streets! Shocking comment. Utterly wrong. Most people did a good job at keeping to the law/rules. I for one saw my grandkids most days as I’ve always cared for them. Without that my daughter and SIL would have not been able to teach in schools. I sometimes feel riled by the comments on this site as so many are incredible rigid in their outlook. I’m 65 so not young but I want a future for my little grandchildren that is normal, not being kept indoors, away from school etc. so many children have had their schooling seriously disrupted due to an illness that hardly affected them. I’m no Covid denier (had it, it was awful) but calling for military on the streets makes me feel quite sick.

Well said, nanatoone.

I’ve read all of this with great interest. We stuck pretty closely to the rules and certainly never went inside anyone’s houses. We did visit outside sometimes. All I would say is that I won’t do it again. Where my family is concerned I will see them whatever the rules may be. Enough is enough. I just hope we’ve seen the last of lockdowns. They don’t bring out the best in people!

Friend's daughter who lives just around the corner from us was on the local fields with her two children. They were flying their kites. After a while the police appeared and told them it was against the rules. They feel sure someone actually called the police. Now if you are being burgled!!!???

Boots on the streets! Shocking comment. Utterly wrong. Most people did a good job at keeping to the law/rules. I for one saw my grandkids most days as I’ve always cared for them. Without that my daughter and SIL would have not been able to teach in schools. I sometimes feel riled by the comments on this site as so many are incredible rigid in their outlook. I’m 65 so not young but I want a future for my little grandchildren that is normal, not being kept indoors, away from school etc. so many children have had their schooling seriously disrupted due to an illness that hardly affected them. I’m no Covid denier (had it, it was awful) but calling for military on the streets makes me feel quite sick.

I got really fed up of the constant FB pictures a friend posted during lockdown.... of her and various different combinations of her 8 grandchildren...who all live in different houses.
She called it " necessary childcare " but it wasn't at all .
I didn't see any of my grandchildren for months and months. The little babies become walking, talking people while I wasn't there.
Heart breaking but I know I am not rhe only one .

Shandy57 I have no idea why the Coastguard would have told you to go home as you were doing exactly the sort of thing the government told us we could do. I walked my dog to the beach every day during lockdown.

Dear God, I hope there are never boots on streets stopping people going out in this country.

I still, strongly believe that the vast majority of people did their very best to abide by the laws and often confused guidance. Please look at the photo of the empty car park I posted earlier. This car park at the seaside in the middle of a a sunny weekend day. It's normally packed but everyone did the right thing. The empty beach when normally it would be full of locals and visitors.

It makes me upset when I read that the law was the law and people who breached it should be fined or moved on by the army. I can't imagine the lack of empathy that must be required to think a mum should be fined for breast feeding her baby on a park bench or that a lonely widower with mental health problems should be told by an armed soldier that he couldn't chat to his pal at the allotment.

A local woman was fined for driving to walk her dog on the beach here, I can't remember the amount.

I was walking to the beach with my dog when the coastguard stopped me to ask what I was doing, he told me to go home.

I don’t think we needed boots on the streets.

Alegrias1

^We needed boots on the streets. It is evidenced now that lots couldn’t be trusted to stay at home. The only way if it breaks out again is to bring the troops on the streets to stop spreading the pandemic.^

This could well be one of the scariest things I've ever read on GN.

That is very very scary, I have no problem with our trained military helping out where needed, in hospitals, vaccination centres, transportation etc, but not policing our streets, no way never ever ever!!!

We needed boots on the streets. It is evidenced now that lots couldn’t be trusted to stay at home. The only way if it breaks out again is to bring the troops on the streets to stop spreading the pandemic.

This could well be one of the scariest things I've ever read on GN.

LovelyLady......it was NEVER the law that you couldn't exercise more than once a day. It was GUIDANCE only.
I for one was out walking before breakfast every day for at least an hour. Never seeing another person. Then shopping in town then a 3 hour walk in the afternoon. Again without seeing anyone else. Sometimes I would pack a sandwich and spend all day on the moors. Im fairly certain that my mental health remained far more intact than people who blindly believed the half hour (non) rule and became angry about others perceived flouting of this GUIDANCE.

The below is from an analysis of the confusion put out deliberately by this government at the start of lockdown.

“The most common example that people think about is exercise once per day, which has never been part of the law. It’s always been the law that you can exercise whenever you want.”