A number of police officers have been issued with fixed-penalty notices after an indoor gathering in Shetland breached coronavirus restrictions.
The gathering occurred in a property in Russell Crescent, Lerwick, at around 6.15pm on Friday while the island was still in Level 3 of Scotland’s measures.
Six people were issued with notices and Police Scotland confirmed a number of officers had been among them.
A spokeswoman said: “Officers were called to a report of a gathering in breach of coronavirus regulations within a property in Russell Crescent, Lerwick, at around 6.15pm on Friday May 14.
“Six people have been issued with fixed-penalty notices and the gathering was dispersed.”
It was not until Monday May 17 that most of Scotland’s islands moved to Level 1, which allows indoor gatherings to take place with up to six people from three households.
As a result of the incident, Superintendent Maggie Pettigrew said: “The vast majority of people in Shetland have been sticking to the rules to suppress the spread of coronavirus and I would like to thank our community for this.
“It is extremely disappointing that a small number of police officers were involved in a gathering in breach of the regulations on Friday.
“Their actions undermine the sacrifices you have all made in the last year and I appreciate many of you will be upset about this incident.
“They have been given fixed-penalty notices and reminded of their responsibility to set an example to others.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here