Covid: Police threaten snowball throwers with £200 lockdown fine

Police have apologised after warning snowball throwers they risk a £200 Covid fine for breaching lockdown rules.

Officers in the market town of Broseley in Shropshire said the children's pastime was "obviously not a justifiable reason to be out of your house".

"This behaviour is likely to result in a £200 Fixed Penalty Notice for breaking the lockdown rules," the Safer Neighbourhood Team for Broseley and Much Wenlock tweeted.

After receiving dozens on complaints on social media, police attempted to clarify that the snowballs were thrown at the addresses of vulnerable elderly residents at around 11pm on Thursday.

However the officers soon deleted the original tweet and admitted that they had been wrong to suggest snowball throwers would be fined.

"Well that definitely snowballed out of hand," the team tweeted. "It has been brought to our attention that our earlier Tweet that seemed to imply that throwing snowballs would land you with an FPN. Obviously, this isn’t the case.

"We were trying highlight that leaving your home to carry out acts of antisocial behaviour could be considered a breach of the Covid-19 regulations. On reflection we really didn’t word this very well. Sorry!"

West Mercia Police said officers were trying to identify three people involved in throwing snowballs at the homes of vulnerable residents.

“At this time, no one has been spoken to or issued with an FPN," said Mo Lansdale, Superintendent for the Shropshire area.

“The pandemic is stressful enough for people, particularly those that are more vulnerable, without them being made to feel worse and isolated in their own homes as a result of disgraceful anti-social behaviour.

“We will not tolerate the targeting of vulnerable people and there are a number of powers available to us to protect people. One such power could be the FPN under the Covid-19 regulations as, I think we can all agree, frightening vulnerable people is not a reasonable excuse to have left your home."