Met Police to crack down on Covid rulebreakers with fines for mask flouters
Londoners breaching lockdown rules will face hefty police fines from today as part of a tougher crackdown Covid rulebreakers.
The Metropolitan Police announced it will no longer “reason with” those not wearing masks in indoor public spaces, and will instead hand out fines more quickly.
In a new hardline approach, the Met warned that people will also face fines if they have no legitimate explanation for leaving their homes.
“With fewer ‘reasonable excuses’ for people to be away from their home in the regulations, Londoners can expect officers to be more inquisitive as to why they see them out and about,” the police force said in a statement.
“Where officers identify people without a lawful reason to be away from home they can expect officers to move more quickly to enforcement.”
Fines start at £200 for a first offence, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400. Those involved in illegal gatherings of more than 30 people are eligible for police fines of £10,000.
The Met said it has today issued “refreshed instructions to officers to issue fines more quickly to anyone committing obvious, wilful and serious breaches”.
Deputy assistant commissioner Matt Twist, head of the Met’s response to the Covid pandemic, said: “After ten months of this pandemic the number of people who are genuinely not aware of the restrictions and the reasons they are in place is vanishingly small.
“Our first duty as police officers is to preserve life. The critical situation our NHS colleagues are facing and the way the new virus variant moves through communities, means we can no longer spend our time explaining or encouraging people to follow rules where they are wilfully and dangerously breaching.”
It comes after the Met last month launched a new digital fines system making it quicker and easier for officers to issue fines on the spot. More people have been reported for fines since its launch than in the rest of the year combined.
A crackdown on New Year’s eve parties saw the capital’s police force break up 58 unlicensed music events, fining 222 people including five for a possible £10,000 each.
But the Met said it anticipates a further spike in the number of breaches amid a growing sense of fatigue relating to the ban on household mixing, shopping and most outdoor sports as England enters its third national lockdown.