A ‘selfish’ group of poker players who attended a late night party breaching lockdown restrictions have been fined.
Police were called to reports of ‘shouting’ and ‘disorder’ at a city centre block of flats in Birmingham.
They discovered the gathering – illegal under current Covid rules – at around 3am this morning.
Brum City Centre Police – attached to West Midlands Police – tweeted: ‘Officers attended a city flat to the report of a disorder.
‘On arrival we found 17 males enjoying (a) poker night. All were issued fines.’
The partygoers were branded ‘selfish’ by some Twitter users who said the fines were ‘thoroughly deserved’.
But they escaped the tough £800 punishment for attending house parties set to be introduced by the Government next week – and were only fined £100 each.
Home Secretary Priti Patel vowed to crack down on people defying the rules as she revealed the new fines will double for each repeat offence up to a maximum of £6,400.
A force spokesperson told BirminghamLive: ‘We were called to reports of shouting at a property in Cambridge Tower, Brindley Drive, just after 3am this morning.
‘Seventeen people were issued with Fixed Penalty Notices, none of whom admitted to being the homeowner.’
West Midlands Police has faced criticism after issuing more than 670 fines in just 10 weeks.
But Assistant Chief Constable, Chris Todd, insisted: ‘It is our responsibility to take action.’
Police have been taking a tougher stance against rule breaking amid record-high deaths and infection rates.
Today it was revealed more than 700 people in Kent have been handed fines since the beginning of the pandemic, including one man who broke lockdown to visit a brothel.
Fines ranging from £200 to £1,000 were issued for rule breaches including hosting house parties and going to public places while infected with coronavirus.
The Government is considering offering £500 to people in England who test positive in a desperate bid to persuade them to stay at home, leaked documents revealed on Friday.
Just 17% of people with symptoms are coming forward for testing, Whitehall research suggested.
And only one in four people are said to comply with rules to self-isolate for 10 days after testing positive.
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