Police bodycam footage shows mass card game broken up at Chatham shop and woman with Covid-19 stopped on way back from petrol station
15:04, 28 January 2021
updated: 17:14, 28 January 2021
These are some of the most blatant breaches of lockdown rules seen in Kent so far this year.
The bodycam footage is released as police issued 202 fines last weekend, bringing the total since the start of the year to almost 800.
Police break up a card game at a Chatham shop
Officers uncovered eight people using a disused shop in Chatham as a makeshift social club on Saturday January 16.
Inside the venue police found a group of men, without face coverings, in the middle of a late night card game.
Quizzed on where the shop owner is, a man replies "The owner is not here at the moment. We're only sat down here having a tea and coffee," while seated at the card table.
Asked when he is due back he adds; "probably about now".
An officer then explains to the men "you guys know we’re in the middle of a lockdown yeah?" before adding, "We’re in a global pandemic yeah.
"Hospitals in London, police officers are driving the ambulances because they are that stretched. It is not a joke."
"You guys know we’re in the middle of a lockdown yeah?"
The officers then take everyone's details before explaining they will be issued with a £200 fine, to be doubled on each reoffence.
"You can’t all be here together," he explains. "None of you have got masks on other than this gentleman there. If one of you has got Covid all of you will get it."
A woman, who has coronavirus, is stopped on her way back from the petrol station
In another clip released by Kent Police a Folkestone motorist is stopped for failling to self-isolate.
Officers initially stop the for car a driving licence check but the woman says she has none and also reveals she has Covid-19.
Asked why she has left the home when she should be self-isolating she informs the officer that she has gone to a local petrol station.
"NHS keep messaging me everyday," she adds.
But when the officer asks her why she replies "to make sure I don't go out and to check that I'm not ill... well I am ill..."
Three men are stopped after getting marooned on a sea fort
Police issued three men from Staffordshire with a fine after they by a boat to a sea fort off the Whitstable Coast.
The trio had made the 180-mile journey from the West Midlands to Southend in Essex by car, before setting out by boat for the historical Red Sands Sea Fort.
But after reaching the fort on Sunday, they became marooned when their inflatable boats drifted away and had to be rescued by the Coastguard and other emergency services.
The group, aged between 31 and 41, were taken by the Sheerness RNLI lifeboat to Sheerness Docks, where they told police officers they had intended to spend the night at the sea fort.
Yesterday police confirmed all three men were issued with fines for breaching Covid-19 regulations.
