Man and woman in Bolton handed £1,000 fines for failing to quarantine

Officers issued the fines to the two people who should have been self-isolating after travelling abroad, including one who worked at a high school.

Bolton has the highest rate of coronavirus cases in the country and council leader David Greenhalgh has said the area’s spike was partly caused by a man who went on a pub crawl when he should have been in quarantine after returning from abroad.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said a woman in her 20s, from the Darwen area, was handed a fine on September 22 after flying back from Amsterdam and returning to her job at a Bolton high school two days later.

The second fine was issued to a man in his 40s from Horwich who returned from Spain on September 20 and went to work at his business, despite being told to quarantine for 14 days.

The force said four fixed penalty notices of £1,000 have been handed out so far to people who have failed to self-isolate after arriving in the UK from countries on the quarantine list.

Chief Inspector Nicola Williams said: “I hope these fines send out a clear message to those who wrongly believe they are exempt from this rule that we will enforce this wherever we find there to be breaches.

“This is an immensely challenging time for all of us – whether it’s the impact these restrictions are having on our personal lives, or on our working lives.

“However, it is absolutely vital that the town comes together and does what it can to curb what is a worrying rate of transmission in the area, and we have been working tirelessly at GMP and alongside the council to ensure that we too are doing all we can.

“This includes those who recklessly flout quarantining rules when coming back from abroad and who run the risk of infecting others; especially when they are working or socialising with groups of people and putting them at risk.

“We are still working by the principles of engaging, explaining and encouraging before opting for the last resort of enforcing, but there is no tolerance for those who are blatantly ignoring the rules that the rest of us are doing our best to abide by on a daily basis.”

Reports of breaches of coronavirus restrictions can be made by members of the public online at www.gmp.police.uk/tua/tell-us-about/c19/tell-us-about-possible-breach-coronavirus-measures.