CORONAVIRUS

Hundreds wrongly charged or convicted in virus cases

Police have been using the wrong legislation to charge people with breaches of the law covering coronavirus restrictions
Police have been using the wrong legislation to charge people with breaches of the law covering coronavirus restrictions
ALAMY

Nearly 350 people have been wrongly charged under laws covering coronavirus restrictions and some have been wrongly convicted.

Concern over how the laws are applied was raised in April when this newspaper revealed the wrongful conviction of Marie Dinou, the first person to be prosecuted on the railways under the new legislation. The Times also revealed that teenagers in Oxford were prosecuted using Welsh law.

In May the Crown Prosecution Service announced a review of all charges brought under the new laws. Its latest figures show that all 218 people charged under the Coronavirus Act and 115 people prosecuted under the Health Protection Regulations were dealt with wrongly.

Kirsty Brimelow, QC, who has analysed the wrongful prosecutions, said that it was a “systemic