Sex and padel off the agenda

A young couple planning to have sex and another pair playing padel in the street are among those who have been fined in the Marina Alta for breaking the quarantine.

Local police stopped a car in Dénia’s Assagador del Palmar area on Saturday and asked why there were two people in the vehicle. Initially, they said they were both going to a pharmacy, but when pressed as to why the two of them had to go there, they admitted they were heading for a secluded spot to have sex.

At least two cars with three or more people – none of them elderly or otherwise dependent – have been pulled over in central Dénia, even though the rules state that only one person is allowed to travel per vehicle unless they have special needs and have to be accompanied. In total, 219 drivers and passengers in vehicles were pulled up by Dénia police in the first week of lockdown, and unable to justify why they were not travelling solo. In one of the three-person cars, the occupants and driver said they had come from Beniarbeig – over 20 minutes away by road – 'to look for a cashpoint'. One man stopped on the Jávea-Jesús Pobre road said he was 'off to visit his nephew', and a woman pulled up on the Las Rotas road said she had 'just been visiting a friend', but any socialising and family and friend visits are banned unless the person they are seeing is dependent and needs care. Another couple of friends were sent home after police found them playing padel in the street. Local police in Alfaz del Pi are strictly monitoring residents’ movements – both night and day to ensure that they are adhering to the restrictions. Five patrols have been performing vehicle checks to ensure drivers are complying, with each being asked why they are out and where they are going.