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Boris Johnson is facing more pressure over Downing Street parties as he attempts to cling to power, after receiving a questionnaire from the Metropolitan Police.
From the DJ fined £12,000 to the host of a small new year’s gathering – the people who <em>did</em> get busted for breaking lockdown restrictions tell their stories
But key figures including Boris Johnson and those accused of having organised allegedly illegal gatherings could be interviewed
By Catherine Baksi2021-02-24T15:27:00+00:00 A person suspected of breaching the coronavirus regulations is not required by law to give the police their name and address, an appeal has ruled. Keith Neale, a 60-year-old homeless man, had his conviction for obstructing a police officer by failing to give his details quashed, by the High Court sitting in Cardiff. In an important judgment on the legal duties of citizens under the coronavirus regulations Mrs Justice Steyn and Lord Justice Dingemans ruled that Neale was under no common law obligation or statutory duty to give the police his name ...
Who? Patrick Ormerod, solicitor in the crime and extradition team, Bindmans, London. Why is he in the news? Represented students who were given £10,000 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) under coronavirus regulations for allegedly organising or facilitating an unlawful gathering. Following representations from Bindmans, these were replaced with £200 FPNs or withdrawn entirely by the police force that issued them. Thoughts on the case: ‘Draconian emergency coronavirus legislation, while necessary, goes too far in giving the police powers to issue £10,000 FPNs with no formal route of appeal that...