Blackburn: Calypso Restaurant owner’s Covid fine anger | Lancashire Telegraph

He was overseeing a socially-distanced outdoor event hosted by Symposium and Pop Up Boutique on May 29 – a time when the government had imposed a ‘Rule of 30’ outside provided people were indeed socially distanced.

Last week, the Prime Minister ordered an investigation into claims staff broke lockdown rules by holding a party at Number 10 last year.

Boris Johnson apologised for the offence caused by the leaked video but insisted he had been repeatedly assured “there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken” on December 18.

Mr Wilson said: “I feel in light of the situation at Downing Street, what with Christmas parties and the like, it is totally wrong on every level for me to be prosecuted.

“Throughout the pandemic I have adhered to all the Covid-19 restrictions and it feels like a kick in the teeth after all the work we did at Calypso for the community. We helped in feeding end of life palliative care patients and the vulnerable.”

Mr Wilson pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him and will appear at Preston Crown Court on January 5.

Mr Wilson went on to say the event, which had around 150 people split into bubbles of six in ‘pens’, had no issues until police arrived to check on the event.

He said: “I told the organisers the event could not go ahead unless it was agreed with the council, which it was.

“On the the day of the event, it went ahead with no incidences. This was a socially distanced event and the crowd were in pens in their own bubbles of six which adhered to the government guidelines at the time.

“We were supposed to run until 10pm but were wrapped up by 9pm. It was then that a police support vehicle pulled up and several officers disembarked.

“Upon talking to a few officers, they said they were just passing and saw the event and so thought they would check it out.

“Several of the officers complimented the event when they saw the pens and praised me for the social distancing. They even said it was really good seeing young people out being able to enjoy themselves.

“One officer I didn’t get the name of but seemed to be in charge, said he was pleased with how it was run and he saw no issues.

“As the officers were making their way back to their vehicle, one of the last remaining officers then spoke to me and said he knew Sean from Pop Up Boutique was the organiser, but Sean had said he was an employee so therefore he was going to have to issue me with the fine and he suggested I get them all to have a whip-round to pay the £1,000.”

Mr Wilson said that the reason for the fine being issued was that some people had left their pens to speak to others in adjoining pens – likely to be a result of them being ‘spooked’ by the arrival of police.

Mr Wilson thought the officer was joking to begin with. He said: “The week after this, there was meant to be another event but I cancelled it. On the day it should of been held, a police officer turned up at Calypso and I told him it had been cancelled and that I hadn’t received any paperwork for the fine.

“He said ‘maybe they had made the decision not to pursue it’.

“I told him I had collected lots of evidence from other events that day, and I could not understand why we had been targeted unfairly.

“Four months later I received a court summons and due to the length of time in between the event and the summons, I had deleted all of the evidence from my phone.”

Calypso was joint winner of the Lancashire Telegraph Community Heroes business of the year with Ribble Homecare. The two companies fed vulnerable families during lockdown.