Breached self-isolation an hour after landing

Prosecuting Advocate Rory Calderwood told the Magistrate’s Court yesterday [26 April] how the defendant’s flight from Southampton had landed in Guernsey at about 2.30pm on 29 March.

An arrivals assistant spoke to him at Guernsey Airport and the requirement to self-isolate for 14 days was explained. When officers went to his home at 4.15pm the same day the defendant said he had gone straight there by taxi from the airport. When asked if he had gone out to get food, Milan said he had not and that somebody else had left a bag of food outside his flat door for him pending his arrival.

When officers checked CCTV from a nearby store, the defendant could be seen in the shop at about 3.40pm.

When they went back to speak to him, Milan said he had not eaten for 10 hours. He had got to Southampton Airport early that morning but shops and cafes had been closed. When he checked on his phone he found that both the Channel Islands Co-op and Marks and Spencer were doing next day deliveries only. He had to carry his suitcases and a table up the stairs to his flat and this had made him even more hungry.

He conceded he had gone to the shop. He had sanitised his hands before doing so and had worn gloves and a face mask.

He had tried to keep his distance from other people and had used a self-service checkout.

The 22-year-old, of Apartment 5, Le Marchant House, St Peter Port, admitted failing to comply with the requirement to self-isolate.

Representing himself, he said he had done everything he could to reduce the health risk to the public and none of his family members had contracted Covid.

Judge Graeme McKerrell said the defendant had still come here via a public airport.

Milan said he had tried to keep away from other people and had bought only essential things at the shop. He had come to Guernsey to start a new job. He knew who his employer was, but had not met him.

Judge McKerrell said the defendant had not been honest with officers at the start.

‘It’s not for you to risk-assess a situation but to observe the rules that are in place to the letter,’ he said.

He said the officers should be congratulated for following up their initial enquiry by checking CCTV from the shop.

Idiotic behaviour such as this put the island at risk of going back into lockdown, he added, which had a huge personal and economic cost attached.

The law had recently been changed and the court could now impose a prison sentence for this offence which showed just how seriously the risk of someone bringing the coronavirus to Guernsey was taken.

A fine of £3,500 was imposed along with a prison sentence of four weeks, suspended for two years.