Fish and chips and smoking cannabis with friends ‘not daily exercise’, say police after fines handed out

Officers told ‘stop bragging’ after posting about incident online

Officers said meeting to eat fish and chips or smoke cannabis did not count as exercise (AFP via Getty)

A group of friends who met up for fish and chips were found in breach of coronavirus restrictions and handed £200 fines each.

The friends were spotted by officers from South Yorkshire police who were patrolling the Ecclesfield area of Sheffield on Monday night.

A quantity of cannabis was also seized by officers from the the Ecclesfield, Chapeltown, High Green and Grenoside Neighbourhood Policing Team.

“No... meeting your mates for fish and chips and to smoke cannabis in not classed as 'daily exercise' or 'essential travel',” the wider Sheffield North East Neighbourhood Policing Team said in a Facebook post.

“Despite the government restrictions we are still seeing lots of people in breach of the regulations,” police said.

The reaction to the force's announcement online was mixed.

Victoria Madden said: “I would love to see a lot more people stopped. I work as a community nurse on nights and the amount of people about is shocking.”

Others were less impressed, with John Smith telling officers to “stop bragging about a draw of weed”.

“Stabbings, guns, burglaries and they focus on a couple of people having fish and chips outside?” said Samantha Dixon Carr.

“Whilst I’m all for following rules and clamping down on parties etc — this is a new low for policing and not how I would like my tax spending.”

South Yorkshire Police have dealt with several Covid restriction breaches in recent weeks. A party with more than 30 attendees was broken up in Rotheram on 12 February and the host was handed a £10,000 fine, police said.

In one incident earlier in February, officers issued over £34,000 in fines after being caled a flat party at a student halls in Sheffield.