Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Police hand out 47 £1k fines to people who didn’t isolate
ALMOST 50 people have been fined £1,000 for failing to self-isolate, police revealed.
In the latest weekly update, the PSNI said since March they have handed out 47 of the top tariff fines.
In policing the coronavirus regulations, officers have also issued 1,775 penalty notices which start at a £60 fine and can increase on repeated offences.
There have also been 1,115 community resolution notices handed out.
In addition, some 449 prohibition notices have so far been issued. Of these, 82 were described as commercial while 362 concerned gatherings in private homes.
Most of these enforcement measures were issued in Belfast (1,446), followed by Derry and Strabane (551), Newry, Mourne and Down (258), Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon (255) and Antrim and Newtownabbey (193). The fewest enforcement measures came in Lisburn and Castlereagh (53).
Last month the Executive approved tougher penalties, which included increasing the minimum fine to £200 and fines on conviction up to £10,000. However, these have not yet become law.
Justice Minister Naomi Long told the Assembly yesterday the regulations “should be laid shortly”, but said there had been delays because of the “pressure on the bespoke printing that is required for those enforcement notices”.
DUP MLA Gary Middleton pressed her for a timeframe, describing the tougher penalties as “of utmost importance” to suppress the spread of Covid-19.
Mrs Long said: “It is important that we do so as quickly as possible, however, the timing of this will unfortunately be led largely by the time it will take for the
PSNI to be able to police the new enforcement notices.”
Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd added police anticipate delivery of the new enforcement notices “in the near future”.
He said: “The tickets are produced by a specialist printer within a defined production and delivery schedule and we anticipate delivery in the near future.”
Meanwhile, the PSNI also revealed there are currently 652 officers and members of staff absent from work due to Covid-19, 570 of whom are self-isolating.