Dear members, Back in April of this year we were all in the depths of the full lockdown. The government was asking us to remain at home and only to leave for essential reasons such as grocery shopping or periods of exercise. Your Neighbourhood Policing Team conducted patrols to encourage compliance with the regulations and to engage with those people who appeared not to be complying and explain the rules to them. The vast majority of residents complied and brought down the number of cases from the initial spike. On 26th of April PCSO Gary Lynch spoke to a man that he found riding a quad bike in the woods at Whiteshill near Stroud. The man had brought his quad to the location in a transit type van, from another district, and tried to convince Gary that riding the quad was his daily exercise. Gary explained his point of view but the rider was having none of it. Despite the government having announced 843 deaths relating to Covid 19 the day before the man told PCSO Lynch that the virus was made up and, “all those hospitals are all empty.” As he became even more abusive Gary was left with no option but to issue one of the new Coronavirus regulations fines. At that time the fine was for £30.This fine went unpaid. Having been summoned to court on 17th October Mr Ryan Grist of Tetbury appeared at Cheltenham Magistrates covid court. He was found guilty and fined £233. Additionally he was ordered to pay a surcharge of £34 and the court costs of £85. All told a total of £352.00, instead of the initial £30. I believe it’s worth letting you all know the above. Firstly to say that Gloucestershire Constabulary, as a whole, has issued more covid fines than some but fewer than many other Constabularies. Where a breach of the regulations is clear and the person breaching them is taking the biscuit we will intervene and utilise the new regulations. Secondly I want to congratulate PCSO Gary Lynch for his diligence and courage in tackling this man. We are so very lucky to have Gary on the neighbourhood team in the district. Sergeant Garrett Gloyn

source https://www.yourcommunityalerts.co.uk/da/345005