13 Apr, 2020 @ 17:39
1 min read

650,000 fined for breaking Spain’s coronavirus lockdown

Police

SINCE the start of Spain’s coronavirus lockdown on March 14, police have issued 650,000 tickets for breaking the emergency regulations. 

Spain’s Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, revealed the figures this morning (April 13) during an online press conference to report on the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic. 

Police
CHECKS: Police have been looking out for rule-breakers.

Marlaska emphasised that the sole purpose of issuing fines was to ensure people obeyed the regulations, dismissing claims from some quarters that it was a money-making exercise. 

He added that public health was his department’s priority. He continued to say that the vast majority of people were obeying the regulations. There had been a slight rise in the number of people being sanctioned last week, but generally compliance was good. 

Marlaska said that money collected from fines will be handed over to the Treasury, which will decide on how it should be spent. 

During the conference he also announced that 4,500 Policia Nacional, Guardia Civil, Red Cross and Civil protection volunteers have started handing out 10 million free protective masks at train and bus stations. 

He pledged that the scheme will be rolled out to chemist shops in the coming days. 

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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