Men fined £200 each for boozing at makeshift pub during lockdown

Police who raided a makeshift pub fined seven men £200 each for breaching coronavirus rules.

The men were caught drinking in a pop-up pub complete with a pool table, beer taps, and a football on the TV.

Police body-cam footage shows the moment officers busted the pop-up pub as the men gathered to watch Leicester City play Brighton in the FA Cup.

Police pounced on the premises in Morris Road, Leicester, just as the football match kicked off at 7.30pm on Wednesday.

They found the group drinking beer together inside the large room, which had a pool table, a large screen television connected to a Sky Box and a well-stocked bar.

One cop can heard saying to the men: "Hello folks, are you alright? What you doing? Sorry guys for spoiling your fun."

Each of the men, who claimed they all worked at the premises, were issued with a fixed penalty notice of £200 for breaching COVID lockdown rules.

Leicestershire Police said bottled alcohol was being consumed but no money appeared to be being exchanged and there was no till present.

Sergeant Ben Widdowson said: “Officers acted on information received to carry out effective enforcement leading to seven people being issued with Fixed Penalty Notices.

Read more: What you can and can't do under current lockdown rules

“Gatherings such as this put the lives of you, your family, your friends and people in your community at risk.

"We will take action on information received and while we continue to encourage, engage and explain in relation to the regulations, we will enforce when clear breaches of the regulations have been made.

“Times are challenging for everyone but please stay at home and keep yourselves and others safe.

“We do continue to thank everyone who is complying with the rules and understanding why they are in place as well as to those who are reporting breaches of the regulations to us.”

Pubs across England have been closed since 4 January when a nationwide lockdown was imposed by Boris Johnson, however many had already been closed for weeks, and some for months, due to tier system restrictions.

Limits on the number of people allowed to meet in a public venue had been in place until the third lockdown, and on Friday one of the UK's leading epidemiologists suggested the country may return to that levels by late spring.

Professor Neil Ferguson said that a tier 2-style of living could be achieved by May if infection numbers continue to fall at their current rate. However he, as well as many experts and politicians, have reiterated the need for the public to continue to follow the rules and not fatigue of lockdown restrictions.

Just last week Matt Hancock warned that England is a “long, long, long way” from lockdown measures being eased amid stubbornly high COVID-19 infection rates.

Watch: What you can and can't do during UK's third lockdown