Nine Metropolitan Police officers have been fined for breaching coronavirus rules while on duty.
Pictures were posted online earlier this month which appeared to show a group of uniformed officers from the South East basic command unit dining in a local café.
The photos, taken at The Chef House Kitchen Café in Greenwich on January 9, showed police cars outside and people sat indoors wearing uniform.
After an investigation, it was decided the officers involved should be issued with fixed penalty notices to the value of £200 each.
Chief superintendent Rob Atkin, South East BCU Commander, said: ‘Police officers are tasked with enforcing the legislation that has been introduced to stop the spread of the virus and the public rightly expect that they will set an example through their own actions.
‘It is disappointing that on this occasion, these officers have fallen short of that expectation.
‘It is right that they will pay a financial penalty and that they will be asked to reflect on their choices.’
IT manager Brian Jennings, 44, took the pictures last week but claimed officers ‘regularly’ eat breakfast at the café.
‘There’s a large police depot on the Thames riverside near me,’ he said at the time.
‘I walk past it a few times a week because it’s a nice quiet place to take exercise. ‘On the neighbouring industrial estate there’s a café.
‘We noticed in the first lockdown and then we noticed it again today that, regularly, first thing in the morning there will be half a dozen squad cars outside and every table full of police officers having breakfast in there.
‘It’s not a one off it’s been going on for a few months. You read about people getting fined in the papers and it seems hypocritical as there’s no attempt at social distancing in the café.
‘It’s a public café and it’s open and it’s serving table service in lockdown – it is not good.
‘It’s about as bad as it gets in the UK with a virus and it’s insensitive and stupid. I think it’s really bad.’
He added: ‘I find the regular, continued flouting of social distancing, and lockdown regulations by the police hypocritical and foolish at this time when the infection rates in the Greenwich borough are among the highest in the UK.’
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