South has 371 lockdown breaches

NEARLY 400 lockdown breaches were recorded by Southern police.

Of those, 52 resulted in prosecution.

Police yesterday released a breakdown of breaches of the Civil Defence Emergency Act (CDEM) and the Health Act during Alert Level 4.

In the Southern police district, the Health Act was breached 371 times, with 50 prosecutions, 299 warnings, and 22 youth referrals.

The numbers were much smaller under the CDEM Act.

There were 14 breaches of the Act — 11 warnings, two prosecutions, and one youth referral.

In a statement, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster urged people to stick to the new Level 3 rules.

“The sacrifices we all made over the last 33 days have made a real difference, but we can’t get complacent.

‘‘We are now at Alert Level 3 — that means staying at home whenever possible, limiting any travel and sticking to your household bubble.’’

During the Level 4 restrictions, police undertook tens of thousands of reassurance checks at essential facilities such as supermarkets, pharmacies and petrol stations and community patrols across the country.

The focus was to educate and encourage compliance with the restrictions, but where necessary, when offending was persistent or serious, enforcement action was taken.

As at 6pm on Monday there had been 5857 breaches of the CDEM Act or the Health Act since Level 4 restrictions were put into place.

Of those breaches, 554 were under the CDEM Act and 5303 were under the Health Act.

CountiesManukau and Wellington Districts recorded the highest number of breaches for which enforcement action was taken, while Northland and Bay of Plenty had the lowest.