Northampton man appears in court to face first-ever charge of 'failure to wear a mask in a shop' in the county

A Northampton man has become the first person in the county to be formally sentenced for not wearing a face mask since the start of the pandemic.

Csaba Levente, of Semilong Road, appeared at Northampton Magistrates' Court today (November 17) charged with assaulting a woman and breaking a bodyworn camera in an incident at a Northampton Co-Op supermarket on September 24.

But the 24-year-old was also the first person in Northamptonshire to be prosecuted for "refusing/failure to wear a protective mask in a retail shop".

It comes after Northamptonshire Police - along with 30 other forces in England - revealed in October that, at the time, they had not yet issued any fines over failure to wear a mask since they were granted new powers in May.

At the hearing today, Levente was ordered to pay a total of £279 in fines, costs and compensation for the assault.

There was no separate penalty imposed for he count of failing to wear a mask.

At a Covid-19 press conference on November 13, Northamptonshire Police superintendent Elliot Foskett said his officers were taking stricter enforcement action against breaches of coronavirus restrictions.

He said: "The message to those who decide willfully not to follow the legislation is that you can expect to have some action taken where we come across you.

"This does include enforcement on face coverings. We have seen increases in the number of fines and data released from the centre this week shows that only British Transport Police have issued more fines around face coverings on public transport than ourselves.

"Hopefully this gives some sense of the seriousness we place upon it."