Court told that Derry man has accumulated fines of more than £2,000 for Covid breaches
Five people found in his home in January of this year
A 24-year-old Derry man has accumulated more than £2,000 in fines for breaching Covid regulations, a court was told today.
Shay Ward, from The Old Fort, was back before Derry Magistrates Court today for another breach.
The court was told that police went to Ward's address on January 16 this year.
On arrival, they spoke to Ward and found five other people in the house, who were in contravention of the Covid restrictions which limited the number of people who could visit other households.
All those in the house lived at different addresses and received penalty notices from the officers.
Defence solicitor, Keith Kyle, told the court that Ward had not been known to police before the pandemic but this was now the third time that he had been before the courts in relation to Covid breaches.
Mr Kyle said that Ward had told him that he had accumulated around £2,000 in Covid fines which he has been paying off.
However, the solicitor said that as of Tuesday of this week, the balance on the fines stood at £1,489.
Mr Kyle said that Ward received benefits of around £1,000 a month.
In relation to the Covid breaches, Mr Kyle said Ward had 'very little to put forward in way of mitigation'.
He had been warned by police previously and had been fined previously but allowed his home to be used as a 'gathering place' for friends.
Mr Kyle said his client knows that was 'entirely inappropriate' given the restrictions in place.
Ward was convicted of two offences - failure to comply with a prohibition order and contravention of a requirement under public health regulations.
He was fined £125 for each offence.