More Than 28,000 Convicted of Covid Rule Breaches as Prosecutions Continue
More than 28,000 people in England and Wales have been convicted of breaches of COVID-19 regulations, despite the Government’s insistence that it never intended to criminalise people for minor infractions during the pandemic. The Guardian (yes, really) has more.
The convictions are for Covid-related offences, such as attendance at gatherings during lockdowns or arriving at airports without the proper evidence of a coronavirus test. Almost 16,000 of the convictions – or 55% – involved people under 30.
The figures, which were obtained by the Guardian through analysis of data from the Ministry of Justice, are considerably higher than any previous estimate.
They reveal how tens of thousands of mostly young people have been severely penalised for relatively minor infractions of Covid rules that have left them with damaging fines and, in many cases, criminal records.
Two years after restrictions were lifted, magistrates are continuing to work their way through a backlog of cases, with about 100 Covid-related cases being heard each month.
The average fine issued in magistrates courts last year was £6,000, although some people have been fined as much as £10,000.
The figures will add impetus to growing calls on the Government to halt the criminal prosecutions. Penelope Gibbs, the Director of the campaign group Transform Justice, said: “It is ridiculous that the courts are still prosecuting people for Covid offences. All outstanding Covid prosecutions should be cancelled immediately.”
The Government said it intended to treat most breaches of Covid regulations as civil infractions, introducing fines to deter behaviour that could spread the virus, rather than criminalising people.
The then Minister for Policing, Kit Malthouse, told the Justice Committee in 2021 that the on-the-spot fines for Covid breaches were a “psychological game” and “relatively light-touch”. Lord Bethell, then a minister at the health department, said the Government was “clamping down on… but not criminalising behaviour”.
Those statements appear at odds with the 28,000 convictions, which are understood to largely stem from people who initially received fixed-penalty notices. If a fine is contested – or left unpaid – it can result in magistrate judges ruling on the case without the defendant being present, under special fast-track measures.
Misunderstood or missed paperwork has led to people being found guilty and sentenced without their knowledge. Some say they had no idea they had been convicted in absentia until the bailiffs arrived.
The Guardian adopting an anti-lockdown tone, albeit as part of a dig at the Government – maybe there is hope for the Left after all.
Worth reading in full.
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I’m sceptical about the truth of that, even though it’s not in The Sun, or whatever. However, if that junk is still being used as a source of revenue, it further undermines people’s confidence in the justice system as a whole.
What confidence is that?!
Sorry, where is the “anti-lockdown stance” of The Guardian in this article? It’s mainly nit-picking about the executions.
This is what an anti-lockdown stance looks like:
1) There was no pandemic
2) Lockdowns don’t work
3) Even if lockdowns did “work” they would be morally wrong, too costly and should never ever ever ever be used
Lockdowns achieved pretty much what they were intended to.
This is why every time I broke the lockdown rules I left my ID at home.
I was half looking forward to finding out how long you can be held for refusing to give details and had standing orders with the family not to come looking for me at the filth station.
Never did find out.
LOL! I’d forgotten this..I took the dogs ID off his collar for the same reason..LOL!
I had an entire ‘cover’ alias ready and waiting….…ah, brings back memories!!😆
You don’t need an “entire cover alias” just give a false name and an address a couple of streets away from you. Unless the police use body cam footage and face recognition software and you’re on file there’s nothing they can do.
This is is why the criminal fraternity love face masks. Renders facial recognition software redundant. But our thick government wouldn’t suss that
ID? What might that be, I wasn’t aware UK citizens were required to have any.
Bank cards, photo driving license, etc.
Tyranny.
Don’t worry I have a nasty feeling we’ll all get to relive the lockdown experience.
Chances are the next scamdemic is already up and ready to go, and it will probably be tied in with the WHO’s all encompassing new powers that it will be granted by our loyal politicians.
Mandatory jabs anyone.. ????
Billy has already promised a new “pandemic” and even the rubbish attending the “inquiry” are keen to refer to the “next pandemic.” My view is that the next crime wave will commence when the Pandemic Preparedness Treaty and the revised IHR are passed so 2024 / 2025.
Definitely within the next two years..
This is from Klaus Schwab’s ‘excellent’ book where he wants to reset the world.
Page 33 – “Just to provide a broad and oversimplified example, the containment of the coronavirus pandemic will necessitate a global surveillance network capable of identifying new outbreaks as soon a s they arise…”
Page 94 – “As advocated by Joseph Stiglitz: The first priority is to (…) provide more funding for the public sector, especially for those parts of it that are designed to protect against the multitude of risks that a complex society faces, and to fund the advances in science and higher education, on which our future prosperity depends. These are areas in which productive jobs – researchers, teachers, and those who help run the institutions that support them -can be created quickly. Even as we emerge from this crisis, we should be aware that some other crisis surely lurks around the corner. We can’t predict what the next one will look like – other than it will look different from the last”
Disgusting and an emblem of the rotting ossified ruling class who can’t even see the case for an amnesty simply on the basis of self-preservation. And especially grievous given that these penalties were mainly imposed upon the young. Such is their contempt for posterity but of course they loathe posterity. In the end all they will have left is the Nuremberg defence and you will see that by that point, ‘I vaz only obeying orderzz!!’ simply won’t cut it. They always do this to themselves in the end. It is written in to the deal at the point of selling out.
Technically if you break the law you should be prosecuted no matter how long it takes to do so. The injustice isn’t that they’re still going after “law breakers” but the fact that the law was introduced in the first place.
And how many law breaking illegal immigrants have had their collars felt during this time? It didn’t slow or stop during lockdown, they still arrived..mask free!
There is a stark and depressing realisation that is an acknowledgment of the time we live in. Our powerlessness against the corporations and the interest groups and the hope that something will slow down the dumbing down. None of that it going to happen because antecedent events have already ensured the trajectory of the next few decades in terms of human reactions. They aren’t just going to stay this way they are going to get worse on many levels. And so you are faced with the only viable solution which is essentially the finding of enclaves. This has happened throughout history. TS Eliot said that European culture would retreat back into the monasteries within a short space of time, writing in the 1950s. If you are of a numerical bent then I would look at the number 25,920 because it contains great wisdom and an urgent warning when you look at dates. Or if you go on 18 breaths a minute just count the human breaths. We really are at heh halfway point in that cycle, something really did happen in 12,500 BC and so much so that they sought to leave reminders of the exact time and date.
Not sure when but in the end there will be 28,000 apologies along with compensations for wrongful and unjust use of the law. If such restrictions were needed there would be evidence, and there is none. No one died from Boris’ xmas party – there was no spike or increase in deaths from the ‘major incident’ when Bournemouth Beach was crowded, etc. etc. etc.
To deliberately create fear and panic among the population is a crime in itself but to then use unjust punishments to coerce and bring about compliance only compounds the crime.
Any apologies will be posthumous.
https://palexander.substack.com/p/mrna-technology-this-devastating
From Dr Mike Yeadon.
We are criminalising Scamdemic rule breakers yet out and out murderers are still roaming free. FFS!
The Government’s “psychological games” have destroyed the mental health of millions.
Those who created and promulgated them should be prosecuted and locked up.
The Government really needs to quash all COVID-19-related behaviour convictions and return any financial penalties. It’s time for reparations for our own people. If the nation is ever going to heal, the disastrous state behaviour of the last three years needs to be made up for. Return the money, remove the convictions from the record. Say sorry.
Pigs might fly.
Might I suggest those who made the arrests and insisted on going to court be prosecuted themselves or get down on their knees and humbly beg for forgiveness.
I’d go full Nuremberg on them. ‘Just following orders!’ my arse!!
Didn’t Hancock repeatedly call is guidance, not he law that he broke?
These prosecutions need to be stopped now. All convictions need to be overturned and fines refunded. That prosecutions are still going on is frightening.