POLICE have caught and fined three groups of people who had travelled long distances to get to a North Yorkshire country park in breach of Covid rules.

Supt Mike Walker, of North Yorkshire Police, revealed the latest breaches today, as he appealed for people to keep following the health regulations as Easter approaches.

He said officers on patrol had their 'busy night' last Saturday evening at Filey Country Park on the Yorkshire Coast:

*They spotted a Ford Fiesta in the car park with a young couple inside who were on a 150-mile round trip from Gainsborough, North Lincolnshire, without any reasonable excuse to travel under the current lockdown

*A group of four men from Bradford, West Yorkshire, were found to have travelled to the park in a Ford Focus with the intention of having a bonfire and having a few beers. The men were sent home after being issued with FPNs

*Officers then noticed a Ducati campervan, occupied by a man from Doncaster.

In Scarborough, officers responded to a report at 1.21am on Sunday of a suspected indoor gathering at Eastfield, which turned out to be a woman’s 20th birthday party. Three attendees attempted to hide from police in a back garden shed and seven Fixed Penalty Notices were issued.

In Selby, officers were called to a report of a gathering in a back garden, where five men and a woman were having a barbecue and mixing with different households and were all handed FPNs.

Meanwhile, on the southbound A168 on the outskirts of Thirsk, a man from London was pulled over in a Mercedes saloon car.

"As well as being uninsured for the vehicle, it turned out the man had been visiting friends in Middlesbrough for a couple of days without reasonable excuse under the current health protection regulation – a 500-mile round journey," he said."He was issued with a FPN and the vehicle was seized."

Supt Walker said that with the Easter holidays on the way, it might be very tempting to relax and stop abiding by the health protections regulations.

"My plea to everyone is to be extremely careful and to keep following the regulations until it is safe to resume a more normal way of living – we have come too far and made too many sacrifices for this effort to be wasted now," he said.