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08th Dec 2021

All the people fined £10k for hosting parties in December last year

Ava Evans

Will you be refunding them, prime minister?

From March 27 2020 to October 17 2021, there were 371 £10,000 fines issued by police in England for holding gatherings in breach of covid regulations.

Leaked footage published by ITV News has revealed No.10 staff laughing in a press briefing rehearsal about a Christmas party held at Downing Street in 2020.

In the clip, the prime minister’s spokeswoman Allegra Stratton (an idea since canned) reveals wine, cheese and no social distancing were served up to revellers in Downing Street, despite a London-wide ban on Christmas parties.

Johnson has strenuously denied any knowledge of a party that violated covid restrictions – but if the prime minister did party, should he refund all the other revellers?

Maybe a refund for the two Derby students, fined £10k for covid breach parties?

At the start of December, police were called to reports of loud music from a flat in the Wardwick in Derby.

The party organiser, a 19-year-old University of Derby student, was fined.

A second 20-year-old was fined a week later for hosting 30 people in his student flat.

The fines were possibly the most egregious levy placed on students since David Cameron hiked tuition fees.

What about the £10k levied on the organiser of a 45-strong office Christmas party in the City of London?

In early December, 45 chaps assembled for a Christmas bash in London’s banking district.

Police found them dancing and drinking in an office. No mention of snogging – but one man was slapped with a £10k fixed penalty notice.

Presumably they had more chance of self-funding the fine, than the students.

Is it high time someone refunded this party-goer in High Wycombe?

We don’t know how many were in attendance that one fateful night in Downing Street – and the number probably doesn’t compete with one reveller in High Wycombe, who managed to assemble a 200-strong gathering just before Christmas.

The event appeared to be ticketed but was held in a private dwelling.

The police, investigating the crime retrospectively, eventually located and fined the organiser £10,000.

Not another student…

A Nottingham student in their third year of university was fined £10k for “mixing households”.

At the time, Assistant Chief Constable Steve Cooper said: “This should send out a warning to people that it is really not worth breaking the law when it comes to Covid legislation.”

Did anyone tell Boris?

Bournemouth man threw multiple bashes – and found himself fined

A 21-year-old Dorset man received the county’s inaugural, and only, £10k fixed penalty notice for breaching covid regulations.

But look: Dominic Cummings has claimed there wasn’t just one Christmas party, but multiple over the festive period.
Should he be punished for multiple mistakes?

Fixed penalty notices ramped up on New Year’s Eve.

New restrictions, which came into effect at midnight on December 31, meant 44 million people saw in 2021 under the toughest Tier 4 measures.

The Met police handed out 217 fixed penalty fines in London, while five people received the jackpot £10k fine for large gatherings.

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