Self-isolation rule breaker’s fine cut
THE first appeal made against a large fine for failing to self-isolate under Covid rules was partly successful in the Royal Court.
Fiona-Mary de la Haye, 35, had the fine of £8,000 imposed in the Magistrate’s Court reduced to £4,500. The maximum penalty is £10,000.
De la Haye was spotted speaking to someone in a communal hallway between her flat and Woodies coffee shop in the Pollet, having returned to the island in August.
She pleaded not guilty in the Magistrate’s Court but was found guilty and fined £8,000.
Judge Russell Finch, who heard the appeal against sentence, said the court did not consider that a substantial fine was wrong in principle.
For the appellant, Advocate Candy Fletcher argued that the sentence was manifestly excessive.
The case had surrounded the circumstances in which her client had taken her shopping from a relative and it was not a matter where she had gone into, for instance, a busy public house or restaurant with no attempt to protect others.
She argued that the Magistrate’s Court had not seemed to have factored in that de la Haye lived in accommodation where there was nowhere to get outside and no access to food. She was also on income support.
On the day in question she was speaking to a relative who had been to collect food for her.
It was one thing to set a sentence that was clearly there to deter other people from doing the same, but another to be overly harsh on her client.
Advocate Jenny McVeigh, for the prosecution, said the appellant had contested the matter fully at trial which meant witnesses were called by necessity.
She had contested factual evidence from eye-witnesses and Border Agency staff who had given her advice when she got back from the UK.
