Man Jet Skis Over 4 Hours To Visit Girlfriend, Gets Thrown in Jail for Flouting COVID Travel Ban
A Scottish man was arrested and sentenced for violating coronavirus restrictions after he Jet Skied to an island off Scotland’s coast to visit his girlfriend.
Dale Mclaughlan, 28, was sentenced to four weeks in jail on the Isle of Man on Dec. 14 for flouting the island’s strict coronavirus travel restrictions, according to The New York Times.
He purchased a Jet Ski and the next day proceeded to drive the watercraft for four and a half hours to the island from Scotland.
Mclaughlan told authorities he expected the trip to take 40 minutes, but it took longer due to the fact that he had never used a Jet Ski before and bad weather on the Irish Sea.
Absolute legend of a Scotsman crosses Irish Sea to see girlfriend and gets jailed…on a JET SKI HE BOUGHT FOR THIS SOLE PURPOSE. He also got covid tested before his trip and legally tried to apply several times. Someone snapped a photo of him landing. Isle of Man = snitches den pic.twitter.com/9gUWLFFECD
— The Penguin Official (@ThePenguinOffi1) December 15, 2020
When he finally landed on the Isle of Man, he walked 15 miles to his girlfriend’s home and the couple spent the weekend enjoying the island’s nightlife.
“This individual was aware of the law and showed a flagrant disregard when they chose to break it, mixing in the community and potentially putting lives at risk,” Isle of Man Chief Minister Howard Quayle said in a statement on Dec. 15.
Mclaughlan was charged with arriving to the island without permission, failing to declare himself and not quarantining, Quayle said.
The man said he had sought official permission to visit his girlfriend multiple times and had been denied each time, the BBC reported.
The judge who sentenced Mclaughlan called the plan a “deliberate and intentional attempt to circumnavigate” coronavirus restrictions and said he had put himself at “very real risk” of harm.
The Isle of Man has implemented strict travel restrictions to prevent a potential coronavirus outbreak. Only nonresidents with special permission are granted entry onto the island.
Scotland has reported 108,438 COVID-19 cases and 4,173 deaths. Meanwhile, the Isle of Man has reported 373 total cases and 25 deaths, but both figures have been near zero since the spring.
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