Two venues across the West Midlands have been issued with the super fine of £10,000 for flouting CoVID-19 restrictions.
A shisha lounge in Birmingham was hit with the fine last Friday evening (9 October) after Police were called to the venue on 30 September following reports of loud music.
When officers arrived at Kasablanca Shisha Lounge, the owner turned off the music and closed the shutters to deter us from entering. Once officers did, Police found up to 250 people inside the premises displaying no regard to the current legislation.
An investigation was launched and the owner was served the £10,000 fine for facilitating this event.
The second fine of the weekend was issued at a premises in Walsall after an illegal rave was broken up in September.
It was discovered by officers out on patrol in a unit on Phoenix Business Park in Stafford Street.
After spotting a number of cars and people entering one of the units just before 12.30am on the morning of Monday 14 September. Officers tried to enter to see what was happening as the shutters were slammed shut in their faces.
Police started taking details of the cars parked up when one of WM officers noticed someone attempting to lock the gated area of the units preventing access in and out.
Shortly after a number of people attempted to leave but found the gates locked, some even tried to jump the fence in an effort to get away. Officers pleaded to the person with the keys to open the gates, which eventually they did, and around 100 people left.
Police discovered music equipment and food and drinks inside the unit.
The owner was interviewed, and after falsely claiming the premises was broken into on the night in question, officers handed him the super fine.
This comes as a fast food restaurant in Dudley was fined for breaching the 10pm closure time on Friday night (9 October). At 10.30pm, The Chicken Hut on Castle Street had a number of customers waiting to be served.
This breaches new regulations where businesses selling food and drink have to close by 10pm and the owners were issued a £1,000 fine.
Officers on dedicated coronavirus patrols, also shut down events at Viollet Salon and Dahlak lounge where large groups of people were continuing to break regulations.
These premises will now be considered for fines.
Police have stepped up WMP efforts to enforce CoVID-19 regulations in a bid to help control the spread of the virus. With four of WMP towns and cities in the West Midlands − Birmingham, Solihull, Sandwell and Wolverhampton – already under enhanced measures, WMP will continue to focus on those areas with the highest infection rate and the lowest compliance.
Superintendent Rich Harris, said: “This was a really busy weekend for us with people continuing to flout the rules across the force.
“We are still following our four ‘e’s approach, however we will enforce these fines when it is obviously people are so blatantly ignoring the restrictions.
“Businesses have a responsibility not only to their customers and their staff but to the wider community and there must be consequences when CoVID-19 guidance is simply ignored.
“Everyone has a part to play in reducing the spread of coronavirus, and no one is above the law when it comes to that.
“We understand that some of the regulations are confusing and we will be explaining where we find breaches, but if people continually flout these measures, we will not hesitate to take action.”