Man fined £800 for going to buy ‘non-essential’ bouncy castle in lockdown
A man who drove 50 miles to buy a bouncy castle was fined £800 after his journey was deemed ‘non-essential’.
The 24-year-old, from Llanybydder in Wales, broke coronavirus rules during the first lockdown period in April this year.
Police stopped him when he was on the A477 in Tenby.
He told officers from Dyfed-Powys Police that he was travelling with a friend ‘in order for his friend to purchase a bouncy castle’.
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The defendant was ordered to pay a total of £811, including a £660 fine, £85 in costs and a £66 victim surcharge on Tuesday, October 20, at Carmarthenshire Magistrates’ Court in Llanelli.
Another man, from Birmingham, was also ordered to pay more than £800 after travelling to Pembrokeshire ‘to fix his girlfriend’s car’.
The 48-year-old drove to west Wales in May and was stopped by police on the A477 in the village of Llanteg.
He was also ordered to pay £811, including a £660 fine, at Carmarthenshire Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, October 22.
Wales went back into a second full lockdown on October 23 as coronavirus cases surged amid the second wave of the pandemic.
People have been told to stay at home, and non-essential shops as well as pubs and restaurants closed, in a return to measures not seen since the UK went into lockdown earlier this year.
People across the country have been told only to travel for essential reasons, such as for medical treatment, to buy food and to exercise.
The 17-day ‘firebreak’ started when the schools broke up for half term and is expected to last just over two weeks until November 9.
First Minister Mark Drakeford said it would be a ‘short, sharp, shock to turn back the clock, slow down the virus and give us more time’.
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