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Venue fined £10,000 after second breach of Covid regulations
Less than a week after being fined £1000 for opening after 10pm, the owner of a venue in Old Market has been fined £10,000 for further breaches of coronavirus regulations.
Police officers found dozens of people inside the Jack of Diamonds on West Street on Thursday, days after Bristol City Council issued the club with a direction to close.
When officers went to hand the owner his original fixed penalty notice on Friday, they found him setting up for a Halloween party.
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It comes as £1,000 fines were also given by Avon & Somerset police to the Racehorse pub in Taunton and a man in Thornbury who failed to self-isolate after being notified by Test & Trace, with £200 fines handed out after house parties in Weston-super-Mare and West Huntspill at the weekend.
Eight people have so far been arrested following a rave attended by some 700 people in Yate on Saturday night.
Assistant chief constable Steve Cullen said that “it’s truly shameful the level of disregard some people continue to show not just for themselves or the law but for other members of society”.
He said: “Officers gave multiple warnings to the Jack of Diamonds and issued the owner with a £1,000 fine which is certainly not an insignificant amount of money, yet this clearly had no impact whatsoever.
“The owner continued to run his establishment as nightclub, providing alcohol to large crowds of people until the early hours of the morning in the most blatant show of contempt for the public health crisis and the health of his community that we have seen.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read more: Bristol prepares for second lockdown
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