UK Court Sentences 72-Year-Old To Six Months For Selling Mince Pies During Lockdown

traditional sweet mince pie and mulled wine glass
Getty Images
Chris Tomlinson

A 72-year-old man has been sentenced to six months in prison by a UK court after being found guilty of violating Chinese coronavirus lockdown rules by selling mince pies at a shooting club and attempting  to destroy evidence afterwards.

Maurice Snelling was found guilty of violating the tier-three lockdown restrictions put in place by the government in 2020 after he pled guilty to perverting the course of justice and was sentenced to six months in prison.

Snelling had claimed that his business had a Cheshire postcode, a county which at the time had been under tier-two restrictions which were less restrictive.

However the court found the Cloudside Shooting Grounds where Snelling served wine and mince pies actually lies just across the county border in Staffordshire, which only allowed takeaway or drive-through, the BBC reports.

The report notes that Snelling had tried to remove the hard disk from the venue’s CCTV system.

Circuit Judge David Fletcher stated that he had issues with Snelling’s claims that he was unaware of which lockdown tier he had been in at the time, noting that Snelling had lived in the area for 30 years.

“[Snelling] is anti-establishment, especially to the police. He doesn’t like being told what to do. He treated police with resentment,” Judge Fletcher said.

In the early months of the coronavirus lockdowns in the UK in 2020, thousands of people were handed fines for breaching the restrictions in the first two weeks of the lockdown alone. By September of that year, the number of fines had increased to over 19,000.

Others were arrested by police for violating lockdown restrictions by attending protests, such as a May 2020 protest in London’s Hyde Park that saw Piers Corbyn, brother of former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, among those arrested.

Later that year, Piers Corbyn would be found guilty of breaking the lockdown restrictions for attending the May protest but was not handed the same prison sentence as Mr Snelling, but rather was released with an absolute discharge after spending around 12 hours in custody.

Government officials who broke the lockdown rules as part of the “party gate” scandal were also able to avoid any prison time, receiving fines instead.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.

 

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