Shop lockdown rebels: We can’t pay £35k fine
Pair refused to close – claiming they were a ‘food retailer’
THE owners of a Midland card shop say they cannot afford to pay a £35,000 fine for refusing to close during lockdown.
Alasdair Walker-Cox, owner of Grace Cards & Books in St Andrews Square Shopping Centre in Droitwich, received four Covid fines totalling £17,000 during this year’s lockdown.
At the time, lockdown legislation prevented non-essential shops from opening as the Government looked to limit contacts between people and stem the rise in coronavirus infections which were rapidly increasing.
In a video shared widely on social media in February, Mr Walker-Cox’s wife, Lydia, was seen challenging an official from Wychavon District Council and a police officer who were advising the couple to shut up shop.
During a trial at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court in August, Mr Walker-Cox’s defence argued the shop was exempt from the regulations as it was acting as both a food retailer and newsagents, as well as selling Christian periodicals.
However, the court ultimately dismissed this argument and agreed with the prosecution’s case that the shop owner had breached Covid regulations by refusing to close.
In the end, Mr Walker-Cox was found guilty of breaching lockdown rules and was ordered to pay a £35,000 fine, just under £9,000 in costs and a £190 victim surcharge – more than £44,000 in total.
But the owners still think remaining open was the right thing to do and are waiting to hear the outcome of an appeal.
“It’s been extremely challenging,” Mrs Walker-Cox said. “We’ve had a business here for 31 years now and we wanted to maintain that business and if we’d been closed for the months that we were told to close for, then those customers of ours would have found other places to go to.”
She added they had “family to feed, bills to pay” and went on to say they did not make enough money to pay the fines, describing them as “disproportionate”.
“The business doesn’t make that much money,” she said.