Man fined for walk on Ainsdale Beach may have been wrongly convicted
Last updated 23rd Jun 2021
A man fined more than £1,760 under Covid laws for walking on Ainsdale Beach after a court hearing lasting less than four minutes may have been wrongly convicted.
Tom Hedley, 21, was found guilty of leaving his home in Clayton-Le-Woods, Lancashire, in a behind-closed-doors hearing on May 7 after being stopped at Ainsdale Beach last November.
Police officers had found Hedley walking with a friend on the night of November 12, at the start of the second national lockdown.
But at the time, exercising or engaging in “outdoor recreation” with one other person was explicitly permitted by lockdown regulations and the only piece of evidence submitted to Wirral Magistrates’ Court contains no sign that Hedley had committed any other offence.
His case was dealt with by magistrate James Long under the “single justice procedure” (SJP), which involves a single magistrate deciding cases in private on the basis of written evidence alone.
SJP hearings, at which no lawyers are present and more than 80% of defendants do not enter a plea, were introduced to speed up dealing with high volume, low level cases but have been criticised by campaign groups for being opaque and unfair.
Hedley’s case was one of 39 dealt with in two hours and 15 minutes on May 7, Magistrate Long spending an average of just three minutes and 27 seconds on each case.
The only evidence against Hedley was the statement of PC James Gerrie, who had stopped him and a friend on the night of November 12.
In his written statement, PC Gerrie said: “Both males were asked as to why they were on the beach and both stated that they had come for a drive as they were bored driving around the Chorley area and it was something to do.
“As a result of this information and following explaining the coronavirus restrictions in place it was established that the males were away from their home address without reasonable excuse and as such in breach of the legislation.
“I informed both males of this and cautioned them.”
However, the restrictions in force at the time stated that going for exercise or outdoor recreation was a reasonable excuse to leave your home and there was no restriction on the distance you could travel in order to engage in these activities.
The regulations also allowed people to do this with one other person who was not part of their household or support bubble.
A spokesperson for Merseyside Police said: “At around 10pm on Thursday 12 November, an officer from Merseyside Police issued Covid Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) to two males near Shore Road, Southport.
“The FPNs were issued because the males, who lived in separate households, could not provide a reasonable excuse as to why they had travelled to the area from Chorley, Lancashire. When questioned by the officer, one of the men stated that they were in the area for a drive because they were ‘bored’ and it was ‘something to do’.
“In November 2020 England was under national lockdown. Going for a drive with someone from a separate household and without reasonable excuse was not a legal reason to leave your home. Therefore FPNs were issued accordingly.”
Hedley himself believes he has been “wrongly prosecuted” as government guidance in force at the time “stated that it was okay to visit a ‘park or beach or exercise or recreational purposes’”.
He would not be the first person wrongly convicted under Covid laws over the past 18 months.
A review by the Crown Prosecution Service found 18% of cases brought under the health protection regulations in the first full year the laws were in operation were wrongly charged.
These did not include cases dealt with under SJP, meaning hundreds more people could have been incorrectly charged and convicted.
In London, for instance, a 21-year-old man was fined £12,000 for holding an illegal gathering despite being told by police that the case against him had been abandoned.