POLICE will be dishing out fines of up to £6,400 to Brits who are caught flouting the new lockdown rules.
They will also be allowed to break up crowds under the new national lockdown rules announced by Boris Johnson this evening.
⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
Rule breakers will first be hit with a £200 fine for a first offence which will then double to £400 for a second.
The fines could continue to double to as much as £6,400 if Brits continue to ignore life-saving restrictions.
Coppers have already been busting groups of people who ignored the rules to stay at home on New Years Eve, with a rave inside a church shut down.
Officers were pelted with bottles as they arrived at a 500-year-old church in Basildon, Essex.
They launched drinks and ice cubes at officers, told them to "f*** off" and chanted as they caused £1,000 in damage.
The yobs barricaded a door to stop cops from getting in while music blared.
Around 600 people bought tickets for £40 each, with strobe lights and DJ decks set up inside.
The gig started at 8pm and was due to go on for 12 hours – with some ravers taking cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine – but cops crashed it before midnight.
A source said: "It was a well-planned event. People were picked up in coaches from around Essex and no one was given the location.
"They had bouncers checking the vehicles and searching people for weapons before they came in. There were multiple ticket sellers but it wasn't advertised online – it was all word of mouth."
In Whitechapel, East London, a group of people were fined for breaking Tier 4 restrictions by playing dominoes in a restaurant.
The 12 were found hiding in a dark room when police went into the building.
In a video released by the Met yesterday, the owner says: “They’re playing dominoes.”
He first tried to stall officers, claiming only workers were there, police said.
The 12 rule-breakers were given fixed penalty notices while the restaurant owner faces a council fine.
Around 100 men and women danced and drank at a bash in Sewardstonebury, just a few miles from Epping Forest in Essex – which has the highest infection rate in the country with 1,321.3 cases per 100,000 people.
They had sparklers hanging from bottles of Belvedere vodka and the £4 million property was kitted out with balloons.
The woman who organised it was fined the maximum £10,000 and 25 fixed penalty notices totalling more than £8,000 were handed out.
A generator was seized from a rave at an abandoned warehouse in Brentwood, with 100 cleared from the venue. Two people were arrested for failing to provide details and drink-driving.
Source: Read Full Article