£6,600 fine for student caught flouting quarantine on Instagram
A STUDENT who should have been selfisolating has been fined £6,600 after she posted an Instagram picture of herself enjoying a meal out.
Carys Ann Ingram, 22, visited restaurants and went shopping when she was supposed to be in quarantine after flying to Jersey from Manchester.
After arriving on October 12 to visit family, she should have self-isolated until she was able to give a negative Covid-19 result five days later.
It was later found that someone sitting near her on the flight had tested positive so she was told to remain in quarantine and undergo a further test eight days after her arrival. But three days after arriving from Manchester she was caught shopping in St Helier, magistrates on the island heard.
A few days later, she was seen close to a seafront fortification and then went for a meal at El Tico restaurant in St Ouen’s Bay, posting photographs of herself on her Instagram feed.
The authorities on the island made a number of attempts to contact her, but they got no answer. Ingram, of Salford, was finally reached by phone by a contact tracing team and arrested. In total she had breached the regulations four times – going shopping, going for a meal at a restaurant, visiting a friend’s house, and not being at home when the enforcement team visited her.
She pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching self-isolation regulations and was fined a total of £6,600 – a fine of £600 for the first breach and £6,000 for the subsequent three, with the alternative being 24 weeks in jail.
Caroline Maffia, of Jersey’s contact tracing, monitoring and enforcement agency, said: ‘This fine demonstrates that we will pursue prosecution for those found flouting the law.’