Covid fines have dipped in North Yorkshire but residents are warned of vaccination scam

Thirty two fixed penalty notices were given to people breaking restrictions over the past week in the coastal town.

The number of people across York and North Yorkshire fined for breaking restrictions has dipped slightly from last week.

Some 87 notices were issued, down from 134 last week.

A total of forty visitors to North Yorkshire from other parts of the country were issued with fines, along with 47 residents.

Scarborough had almost twice the number of fines than York, which saw 19 people issued with fixed penalty notices.

Police said that the majority of gatherings they are breaking up are of people in their teens, twenties and thirties and that they're seeing groups of up to fifteen people congregating.

In Harrogate, 12 fines were given, along with 10 in Richmond, seven in Selby, four in Hambleton and three in Ryedale.

No fines were issued over the past week in Craven.

Supt Mike Walker said: "Whilst there are early signs that lockdown measures are taking effect, we must not be complacent.

"Our NHS colleagues are working flat out to care for the sick so we must going.

"I am pleased to say we have seen a reduction over the last week of the number of fixed penalty notices we have had to issue.

"We are starting to see slightly better compliance but we are still issuing fixed penalty notices to those who believe the regulations are not there to follow."

The figures come as residents were warned of a vaccination scam circulating on email, amid fears that criminals are using fake vaccination booking forms to extract bank details.

The vaccine is free, and Trading Standards have reminded residents that they will never be asked for bank details or identification forms when they are invited for their vaccination.

Jo Boutflower, head of business and consumer services at North Yorkshire County Council's trading standards team, said: "People need to be suspicious of unsolicited emails.

"If you're not in a priority group and if you're not expecting to be vaccinated, although we're all anxious to be vaccinated, just pause for thought and take a minute before opening the email.

"The scam I've seen appears very genuine and like it comes from an NHS address.

"People can check where the email comes from by hovering their cursor over the email address to show you the actual details, to check and make sure the origin of the email is genuine."

She said people should not click on links in emails they are suspiscious of.