Trip for spuds proves very expensive

A MAN who travelled from Swansea to Pembrokeshire to buy potatoes is among those fined for breaching coronavirus restrictions.

The 62-year-old was one of 14 people to appear at Carmarthenshire Magistrates’ Court, Llanelli, last week for breaking Covid-19 rules.

He was ordered to pay £237 in total.

Each incident took place between March and May this year, with each defendant being caught by officers from Dyfed-powys Police.

Other breaches of the rules included a man from Merseyside travelling to Powys “for a party”, a Swansea woman going “for a spin” to Carmarthenshire and a woman who travelled from the West Midlands to Ceredigion to “visit the beach”.

Of the 14 defendants, 10 were ordered to pay £811. These included:

A Swansea woman, 22, who said she “just came out for a spin” when stopped on the A40 in Carmarthen;

A 38-year-old man, from Wirral in Merseyside, who “went out for a drive” to Welshpool in Powys;

A Llanelli man, 18, who twice refused to go home when police officers saw him with a group of men;

A man, 27, who drove from Wirral to go to a party in Newtown, Powys;

A 28-year-old man who said he left his Ebbw Vale home to “pick up friends” when he was stopped in Crickhowell;

An Ebbw Vale woman, 20, who said she was “out for a drive” when stopped on the A40 in Powys;

A man, 29, who left his Brecon home to go to a party;

A 29-year-old woman, from Milford Haven, who refused a police officer’s instruction to remove people from her home.

The remaining defendants were ordered to pay £237, with one ordered to pay £239.

These included a woman from the West Midlands, 45, who travelled to Borth and Clarach in Ceredigion “to visit the beach” and a 20-year-old man from Brecon who was told four days in a row that he was “away from his household without reasonable excuse”.

The defendants must pay a total of £9,060, made up of £7,080 in fines, £1,190 in costs and £790 in victim surcharge.