Police caught woman back at gathering after she was fined

A WOMAN returned to a gathering in breach of Covid-19 guidelines after earlier being issued with a fixed penalty notice and being told to go home and stay there.

Police went to residential accommodation at the Newcastle Arms pub, Carlton Road, Worksop, in the early hours of Christmas Eve, Nottingham Magistrates’ Court heard.

They were told a gathering was taking place and found six people in one property smoking and drinking at around 1am.

Officers established that four of those present were residents at the address but one man and a woman, Edyta Ostrowska, were not.

They were fined and advised to go home.

“The lady subsequently left the address and the male was taken back to his property by the police,” said Kwok Wan, prosecuting.

“Unfortunately, an hour or so later, further information was received by the constabulary that a party had returned to the address. The police subsequently attended again at about 2.02am”.

Ostrowska, 47, who lives at another address in Carlton Road, Worksop, was found in the kitchen drinking.

Mr Wan said: “In short, she had returned after being issued with the fixed penalty notice. That is why she is before the court today for breaching the Covid-19 guidelines”.

Ostrowska, who is Polish and was assisted by an interpreter, said she had lived in the UK since 2015.

Representing herself before magistrates, she said she did not know how many people lived at the address and it was her first time there. She said she had returned because she had left her phone there.

According to a police officer’s statement, once they saw her with a drink in her hand, she was asked to go outside and she was arrested.

Ostrowska, who is unemployed, pleaded guilty to participating in a gathering of two or more people in a private dwelling indoors in a Tier Three area on December 24.

Magistrate Richard Vincent, sitting with another magistrate, fined her £320 and ordered she pay a victim surcharge of £34.

He said she had pleaded guilty to the offence at the first opportunity, she was of previous good character with no previous convictions and “those go to your credit”.

“However, the court cannot ignore several other aspects of this case. You are clearly aware of the effects of the pandemic on society, on people’s health and the clear warnings that have been given for months and months last year.

“On this particular occasion, you ignored the fact you had just recently, within a matter of minutes, been issued with a fixed penalty notice by police.

“You were told to go home and stay there and you ignored that advice.

“It doesn’t matter that it was Christmas Eve and your friends had invited you. It was against the law and we consider it a blatant breach of the warning and the penalty notice you had been given.

“We would be failing in our duty as magistrates to wider society if we did not consider this seriously”.