Woman Furious as £2,000 Lockdown Fine Suddenly Taken From Bank Account

A Sheffield woman has complained after money was automatically taken out of her account without her knowledge after being told she’d receive a £10,000 coronavirus fine last year. The Yorkshire Examiner has the story.

Sunny-Jo Veasey, 28, is set to have £320 taken out of her account every month after a court hearing took place in her absence and set the charge at £2,026.

She was initially issued with the fine while living in a shared property with seven other people on Ecclesall Road.

She has complained about the “crippling” fine amid the cost of living crisis and insists she didn’t organise a “rave type gathering of more than 30 persons” as has been stated on the charge sheet.

She has also complained about her situation in comparison to that of Boris Johnson and the Government, who are still awaiting to see what their punishment will be after the details of their lockdown gatherings were passed on to the Metropolitan Police force.

She said: “They had parties when they were telling everyone else not to and nothing’s happened. It’s disgusting.

“Hopefully something comes of it [the police investigation]. If they can charge a person like me £2,000 then they should get the same, although it will probably just be pocket money for them.”

Sunny-Jo was told by police that she would be fined £10,000 when they attended a gathering at the shared house she was living in on Ecclesall Road on February 28th 2021.

The country was in a lockdown at the time and indoor gatherings were banned.

Sunny-Jo admits that she was in the wrong to break the rules but says that she only invited eight friend friends over to the property and that the event got “out of hand” when people from nearby began showing up uninvited.

Sunny-Jo has now moved to a new home in Chapeltown and believes that all correspondence about the court hearing went to her previous home and which is why when the court hearing was held she was unaware that it was taking place.

In her absence she said it was decided that 17% of her monthly income would be taken to pay off the £2,026 fine, with £320 taken out last month.

She said: “I didn’t know anything since the night it happened so I presumed there was nothing coming from it. Then they took 17% of my income. I have been calling the courts crying and trying to say that I can’t afford this. The cost of living is through the roof and you are taking this much out of my wage.”

Sunny-Jo has since been able to get the correspondence that she believes were sent to her previous property and after speaking to the Ministry of Justice, she has appealed the court’s decision and another hearing is now scheduled for this Thursday (March 10th).

When will the Government declare an amnesty for those punished under these ludicrous laws that people increasingly agree should never have been imposed in the first place, and which Government ministers and staff have been exposed as routinely ignoring?

Worth reading in full.