A man who drove 100 miles for a takeaway has been landed with £344 bill after PC Mcluckie swooped on 'Perfect Chicken'.
During lockdown restrictions last November, Atif Ali drove from Blackburn to Derby.
Magistrates heard that PC Laura PC Mcluckie was passing the Perfect Chicken takeaway at around 8pm on November 22 and saw several patrons inside, alongside a number of staff, all of whom weren't wearing masks.
It was during the second national lockdown, when customers were only allowed to collect food from takeaways and banned from staying inside to eat. They also had to wear a face mask indoors unless exempt, the Derby Telegraph reports.
PC Mcluckie, who was out patrolling Covid restriction breaches, asked the customers, who included Atif Ali, to step outside before speaking to a staff member,
In a witness statement provided to court, she wrote: "Some of the other staff had moved into the back room as we walked in and appeared to be scrambling for face masks”.
Police had left the shop when Ali asked if he could go back in.
PC Mcluckie said he couldn't because he wasn't wearing a mask. The officer described how the customer claimed the scarf around his neck would serve as a face covering 'and was trying to get away with that'.
Officers noticed the man 'didn’t have a local accent' and asked him where he was from.
He replied 'Blackburn', saying that he had 'travelled to Derby to see a friend'.
Deeming his trip to be 'non-essential', PC Mcluckie said in her witness statement: "Ali became very obstructive and abusive to my colleague and I.
"I felt that he was trying to obstruct us from doing our job and trying to intimidate us," the officer went on, describing how she told the 'aggressive' defendant 'to stop swearing and calm down.'
Atif Ali, of Calgary Avenue, Blackburn, was fined £200 for breaching Covid restrictions at a hearing last November, but, after neglecting to pay, the amount was increased at separate, June 9, hearing to £344, including court costs and a victim surcharge.
His case was decided in private with no public access and in Ali’s absence, based purely on the report of PC Laura Mcluckie, whose witness statement was later released to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
