Man overturns £10,000 Covid fine he was given for not wearing a mask at Tube station

A project manager has successfully overturned a huge £10,000 Covid fine for not wearing a face mask at a Tube station.

Sean Howson, 40, was stopped by police at Green Park station on December 28, 2021, after being spotted using his coat to cover his nose and mouth.

He said he was surrounded by five police officers, and pointed out several other people at the station without masks who were not being challenged.

Howson was prosecuted in a behind-closed-doors court hearing in July last year, after not paying the £200 fixed penalty notice.

A single magistrate then issued Howson with a £10,000 fine, plus £250 costs and a £190 victim surcharge.

At an appeal hearing at Southwark crown court on Thursday, prosecutor Tom Daniel said: “The consequences of the pandemic were devastating for many people in this country.

“The cost of the pandemic and of dealing with it were vast. The evidence was that face masks played a part in stemming the flow of the virus.”

Mounting his appeal, Howson insisted: “I was covering both my face and my nose with a jacket.

“I asked them under what regulation I was being stopped. They did not answer.

“While speaking to the officers I saw that a number of people at the station without face coverings or without face masks.

“They said that we are dealing with you so we are not focusing on them.

“There were five police officers surrounding me at the time.

“One might argue that a jacket is a type of covering.”

Howson, who has a Masters in business administration from the University of Reading and now works in project management in the construction industry, told the court he had never before been in trouble with the law.

“I have no charges at all in relation to Coronavirus regulations. I have members of my family who have been struck down by Covid”, he added.

Recorder Jonathan Bellamy allowed Howson’s appeal, agreeing the fine imposed was “manifestly excessive”.

He ordered that Howson, from Cobham in Surrey, must now pay the original £200 fine.

Court records show that on the same day as Howson’s fine, the same magistrate imposed fines of £721 and £100 to two other defendants who had committed the same offence.

Others caught without a mask were sentenced by different magistrates to fines of £147, £169, and £69, in prosecutions brought through the Single Justice Procedure.