Police’s Covid rule breaker quiz after ‘blatant and deliberate breaches’ in Preston

Claims were recently made that people in Avenham Park were not following social distancing Pic: Lauren Melling

Lancashire Police have been playing Guess the Covid-19 Lockdown Breach after dealing with a series of ‘blatant and deliberate’ violations.

A post on the Lancashire Police Facebook page said: “Here’s a quick quiz for you… Which of these lockdown breaches have occurred across Lancashire over the last few days?”

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– A group of men watching football together at an address in Ashton-on-Ribble

– Ten men playing football together in an area off Tag Lane, Ingol

– Two people from different addresses (one in Preston and one in Blackburn) stopped close to the Docks, who after giving several reasons for being out together eventually admitted they had met up to get a McDonald’s

In the post, Lancashire Police revealed all the incidents had in fact occurred, and their use of the eye roll emoji made their feelings on the matter clear.

In total the force has issued 198 fixed penalty notices across the county between Friday 15 January and this morning (Wednesday 20 January).

Ch Insp Patrick Worden, chair of the Lancashire Resilience Forum’s Enforcement Cell, said: “We have always been clear that we would rather explain, encourage and educate, before enforcing as a last resort, but these incidents have all been blatant and deliberate breaches of the regulations.

“We all want to return to normality as soon as possible, but in order to do that we need to contain the spread of the virus. To do that we all need to do our bit and stick to the legislation and guidance.

“Behaviour by people such as those mentioned in the incidents above will only prolong the restrictions for all of us.

“We hope this round-up sends a message that we will clamp down, where needed, on those flouting the regulations.

“If you are a key worker or have a reasonable reason for being out and about, please don’t be offended if we stop you to ask where you are going and why you are out – our officers are just doing their jobs and are working extremely hard to keep everybody safe.”

Anybody with concerns about lockdown breaches can report them online at http://orlo.uk/cgv36 or by calling 101.