£1,200 fine for flying drone over Xmas fair

A MAN has been fined for flying a drone over a Winter Wonderland event attended by thousands of revellers.

Paul Griggs, 44, used his £1,200 drone over Hyde Park on December 7, weeks before a rogue drone operator brought chaos to Gatwick Airport.

Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that the theatreset designer tried to flee police when confronted.

The father-of-two, from Enfield, North London, was ordered to pay £475 for ‘obstructing a constable in the execution of his duty’ and flying a ‘small unmanned surveillance aircraft within 150m of an organised open-air assembly of more than 1,000 persons’.

Defence lawyer Kieran Smith said Griggs had acted ‘stupidly’.

Police are continuing their hunt for those behind the Gatwick drone attack – and are investigating reports of another drone at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday.