The most ridiculous Covid lockdown breaches in Bucks

As we approach a year since the Prime Minister plunged the entire country into its first lockdown, we’ve rounded up some of the worst lockdown breaches.

High Wycombe house party

Marlow Hill. Picture: Google

Organisers of a party involving 200 people in High Wycombe were slapped with a £10,000 fine in December last year.

Around 200 people were at the party at a house in Marlow Hill, which appeared to police to be a ticketed event, with music playing in a number of rooms on December 12.

Organisers of the party were fined £10,000 for having more than 30 people gather in a private house, with TVP also shutting down the property for three months, which meant no-one was allowed in during that time.

Friends fined for travelling to view a second-hand car

Picture: TVP

A number of fines were also issued in January this year, with two people ordered to pay £200 each after they were seen driving out of Bucks into the Midlands on January 12.

The driver and passenger, who were friends and did not live together, had travelled from Bucks to view a second-hand car up for sale in Coventry.

They were both reported for breaching Covid-19 lockdown rules.

A day earlier, two people from Aylesbury were fined a total of £1,064 after they attended an illegal rave in Wales last year which saw between 3,000 and 4,000 revellers turn up.

Man drives 30 miles to pick up fried chicken

File photo

Also in January, a man from Chalfont St Giles was issued with a fixed penalty notice after driving 30 miles to Surrey to pick up fried chicken.

The man, who police did not name, was stopped after “driving erratically” in Walton town centre.

Surrey Police said he explained he lived in Chalfont St Giles, more than 30 miles away, and had gone out for a drive and to buy a takeaway – believed to be fried chicken.

He was handed a £200 fine.

Learner driver attempts 260-mile round trip to visit a friend

Picture: TVP Roads Policing

A learner driver was stopped on the M25 as he left Bucks attempting to drive 130 miles from Bournemouth to Watford.

The individual was fined after he was stopped over insurance issues as police discovered he only held a provisional licence.

He told the roads policing unit he was driving from Bournemouth to Watford to visit his friend.

Nail bar fined for ignoring Covid restrictions

Stock picture

A nail salon in Milton Keynes was closed down by police in February for ignoring Covid restrictions and operating illegally during lockdown.

The business owner was given a £1,000 fixed penalty notice (FPN) for running the non-essential business illegally.

It was the second one in the town in two weeks that was reported to have breached lockdown rules and issued an FPN.

Other breaches

Thames Valley Police issued three fines to people for failing to self-isolate after arriving from a country on the quarantine list in October last year.

Data published by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) showed three fines were recorded by Thames Valley Police between March 27 and September 21 for people failing to self-isolate for two weeks after returning from abroad.

And in May 2020, figures showed more than 600 fines were handed to people in the Thames Valley for flouting Covid-19 lockdown laws.

At the time, police forces were given powers to hand out a £60 penalty, reduced to £30 if paid within two weeks, for breaches of the lockdown rules.

Data published by the NPCC showed 649 fixed penalty notices were recorded by Thames Valley Police between March 27 and April 27 last year.

In January, the BFP reported that almost 1,000 fines were handed out by police for breaches of Covid-19 laws in Thames Valley since they came into force.

NPCC data showed a total of 965 FPNs were issued by Thames Valley Police between March 27 and December 20.