Three women from Preston have been issued with fines after being found inside an illegally operating tanning salon.

They were three of seven people handed fixed penalty notices for being in the salon in St Annes.

Officers attended the salon in The Crescent at 8.11pm on Wednesday 3 February and found six women and one man inside. No people were using tanning beds at the time.

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The six people, including a woman from Broughton, a woman from Longridge and a woman from New Longton, were given fines of £200.

The owner of the business was issued with a fixed penalty notice for £1,000.

Insp Mick Jones, from Fylde Police, said: “We are in the midst of a global pandemic and this kind of behaviour is both reckless and selfish. To travel across the county for any non-essential reason is needlessly putting themselves and others at risk and potentially prolonging the current lockdown.

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“The vast majority of people in the county are doing their very best to support the national effort to beat Covid and our preference is to help people stay safe by explaining, educating, encouraging them to follow the rules.

“However, where appropriate we will take enforcement action against those who flagrantly break the rules and work with our partners in order to keep the people of Lancashire safe.

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“If people do see illegal activity taking place we would encourage them to take down details of times/dates/registrations of vehicles and descriptions of the individuals involved and report it to police on 101.”

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