Of nearly 30,000 fined between 2020 and 2023, 70 per cent were under 40. (Image: Getty) Are YOU a Covid convict? Did you flout the law during lockdown, get caught and earn a fine and a criminal record? If so, did you get what you deserved, or are you still aggrieved that others got away with more? I ask as I ponder Sir Robert Buckland’s call for a clean slate for those who received fines via the magistrates’ courts. These count as criminal convictions – unlike the fixed penalty notices for the then Chancellor Rishi Sunak and ex-PM Boris Johnson , penalised for the latter’s “brief” birthday bash in the Cabinet Room in June 2020.
Covid -related convictions must be quashed, insists benevolent Bob, who oversaw the court system during the pandemic. Of nearly 30,000 fined between 2020 and 2023, 70 per cent were under 40. They held and attended parties, went on the razz during lockdowns, and neglected to mask up when it was mandatory.
£26million in fines was banked during the period, more than from any other offence except driving and TV licences. It was, as the former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice reminds us, “an exceptional time”. Records incurred then are preventing people from getting jobs now.
“It is not,” he adds, “proportionate or necessary at a time when we want to encourage and support as many people back to work as possible.” function loadOvpScript(){let el=document.createElement('script');el.
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