Four men have each been fined £200 each for breaking coronavirus laws after travelling to McDonald's for their breakfast. That's an expensive McMuffin Meal...
Northampton Response Team stopped the car at 5am earlier today (6 January) and found the two men and two women in the vehicle didn't all live together.
They explained they were on their way to McDonald's but, after a quick enquiry, it was confirmed they weren't from the same household and therefore were in breach of coronavirus laws.
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Police handed out 'Covid tickets' to the value of £200 - meaning that collectively, the men will have to fork out £800 as a result of their actions.
This current, and third, lockdown means you can only go outside if you have a reasonable excuse.
Household mixing is banned (unless you're exercising with one other person from another household) and you can only really leave the house for essential reasons such as food shopping, picking up medication and for exercise.
Read more about what you can and can't do here.
Taking to Twitter, the Northampton Response Team wrote: "At 5am we stopped a car with 4 ppl in.. Just going to McDonald's... Not all of them live in the same household, 4x COVID tickets issued.
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"Pls make sure you are up to date with the most recent http://Gov.uk guidance to make sure you don't end up with a ticket!"
Police officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) have been instructed to hand out fines to 'anyone committing obvious, willful and serious breaches'.
They will be fined £200 for the first offence and that will double for further offences - up to a maximum of £6,400.
Last October, a family were fined £10,000 for breaking coronavirus guidelines after their 18-year-old son hosted a gathering at his family home in Wiltshire while his parents were away.
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There were between 80 and 100 people at the house in Devizes on 4 September last year, when the rules stated that up to 30 people could gather indoors at a house at any one time.
While they admitted their son has been 'stupid', the parents argued the only reason the party was over the legal number of people was because of gatecrashers and refused to pay.
The family has complained to Wiltshire Police and instructed a solicitor to take the case.
Topics: UK News, News, Coronavirus, UK