A ROAD trip to Astbury Mere proved an expensive one for a man who refused to accept a Covid Fixed Penalty Notice from Cheshire Police.

Kegan Tideswell could have paid the £100 on-the-spot-fine he and four friends were issued with by a PCSO after they travelled outside their home without a reasonable excuse during the lockdown in January.

Now he faces forking out ten times that amount after being hit by a £1,082 court bill, swelled by costs, after he denied the offence.

South Cheshire Magistrates' Court heard how Tideswell told the officer the party was "out for a drive" in his friend's new car, leaving their rented home in the Miles Platting district of Manchester to travel a 45-mile round trip to Congleton, although the mere was closed.

They were spotted around 9pm standing by a white Audi in Sandy Lane near the entrance to the beauty spot and the officer told the group they would be liable for Fixed Penalty Notices and took their addresses.

Tideswell was said to have given an address at Barton Road in Congleton, which was checked on the police computer system, whereas the other four men said they lived in Manchester.

At the time lockdown restrictions did not permit mixing with other households, but the defendant insisted the officer's details were wrong, and that the Barton Road address was his mother's home.

"Everyone in that car was from the same household. We were all in lockdown and we were stuck under each others' feet, so we decided to go for a walk at Astbury Mere," he said.

"We were all struggling and one of us had just got a new car so it was a good chance to give it a run.

"It was for our mental health. We just wanted to get out of Manchester and get some fresh air. Most of the household are originally from Congleton so we knew it was a nice place to go for a walk."

Restrictions on movement applied under Tier Four which was in force at the time of the offence on January 27 this year, which saw police seize the vehicle because of "insurance issues".

Prosecutor Max Saffman questioned: "You drove all the way from Manchester to Congleton when you could have got out of the city much closer to home?

"I don't know what you were doing in Congleton at nine o'clock at night, but whatever reason you've given is not a reasonable excuse. You were outside your place of residence."

Tideswell, 26, of Brookhill Street, Manchester denied breaching coronavirus restrictions by being outside of the place where he was living without reasonable excuse.

Magistrates found the case proven and said: "We do not consider travelling 30 miles from Manchester in the dark to Astbury Mere to exercise a reasonable excuse."

They fined Tideswell £420 and the costs of £620 as well as a victim surcharge left him with a bill of £1,082.