A group of 10 who rented an apartment to have a party and friends from separate households in a car together during the early hours without masks are the latest fined for breaking Covid regulations.

Officers were called to a property in The Boulevard, Greenhithe at about 10pm on Saturday following reports a party was taking place.

Some of the fined people for breaching Covid rules

When officers arrived they found 10 people inside.

The group told them they had rented the apartment to have a ‘blowout’. The six men and four women were issued with fines and were among 74 people fined for breaching Covid-19 legislation over the weekend.

Also fined was a motorist who was stopped with his friends from separate households in Dock Road, Chatham, at 2.27am on Monday.

None of them were wearing masks and the driver told officers he was taking them to his address in Gillingham and that he had picked up his girlfriend because it had been Valentines' Day. All four were fined.

Three women and two men received fines after officers were called to reports of a house party in Maison Dieu Road, Dover, at 12.35am on Sunday.

They all claimed to live at the address, however subsequent checks by officers revealed they did not and they were fined.

And four men were issued with fines after officers stopped a car in Benenden Road, Wainscott, at 12.30am on Saturday. The men, who said they had been driving around and drinking, were all from different households.

In the last week, 165 people were issued with fines bringing the total for February to 419.

Since the beginning of the year 1,392 fines have been issued to people for breaching coronavirus regulations with a total of 1,783 fined since the legislation was passed in March 2020.

Assistant Chief Constable Claire Nix said: "The vast majority of people in the county continue to do the right thing and make substantial personal sacrifices by following the regulations.

"Their efforts are undoubtedly saving lives and preventing the NHS from being overwhelmed.

"It is not yet time to act like lockdown restrictions have been lifted and we will take action against those who continue to ignore the regulations and behave selfishly.

"Whilst I understand that people simply want to socialise, if everyone breached the restrictions, we could find ourselves in a dire situation.

"I would ask people to think carefully about their behaviour, just popping round a friends house or having a small family party, may not seem problematic but the knock on effect can be devastating.

"Ask yourself how you would feel if you became responsible for spreading the virus to someone who became seriously ill or even lost their life.

"Following the regulations is the best possible way to be a good citizen and care for others."

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