'Trip to see nana' claim leads to five Covid fines after BMW ends up in field 40 miles from home
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North Yorkshire Police’s road policing unit was alerted to the stranded black BMW 1 Series in the early hours of today, Tuesday, March 2, in a turn of events its officers have deemed “bizarre”.
As officers attended the scene of the crash, they established the five people in the car had travelled into the county from County Durham and claimed they had been travelling to see their grandmother – who lives Peterlee just the next town from their home village of South Hetton.
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Hide AdThe incident not only led to their vehicle being pulled out of the muddy field by a recovery truck, but proved costly as the force fined them for breaking Covid rules.
The Fixed Penalty Notice for for the first breach of lockdown rules is £200, which then doubles for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400.
A spokesperson for the team said: “Fortunately for this BMW driver he drove off the A66 near Richmond into a muddy field rather than get more lost than he already was.
“We were called to this at 3am this morning by a concerned passer by having seen orange flashers in the field.
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Hide Ad"The driver claimed he had swerved for ‘something’ ending up in the field, his efforts to drive it out just bogged it down further prior to our arrival.
"Bizarrely the five occupants from County Durham had been visiting Nana...the journey of five miles between South Hetton and Peterlee had bizarrely extended to 40 miles, encompassing the Richmond area.
"Luckily, Nana was safely at home and can await these five returning back complete with Covid fines issued.
"Our officers used two Police vehicles to stop the traffic whilst the recovery driver extracted the car from the field.
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Hide Ad"All people having to come in one location unnecessarily just because people didn’t stay home.”