A couple have been fined more than £2,000 for holding a baby shower sixteen days before Covid restrictions were eased last year.
Student Assis Filipe, 22 and his partner have been issued £1,000 fines each for breaking restrictions amid the Partygate scandal.
Filipe told Westminster Magistrates' Court that he and his partner misunderstood the Covid relaxation rules and thought restrictions had ended when they held the gathering on May 1, 2021.
He told the judge he could not afford to pay the fines in £200 monthly instalments.
It’s now been reduced to £50 a month because of the rising cost of living, but the couple will still eventually have to pay the full penalty.
The hearing initially took place under the controversial "single justice procedure" in November, which sees cases decided by a single magistrate on the basis of written evidence, without defendants or defence lawyers present.
The baby's father was then separately summonsed to Westminster Magistrates' Court to be fined separately for the same event.
Edson Assis Filipe, 22, told the court he thought the £1,000 fine had been for both of them and there was nothing further to pay.
District judge Louisa Cieciora told him: "You thought it was imposed for both of you but the court records do not reflect that. Your girlfriend was fined £1,000 but you were given no penalty."
Mr Assis Filipe, now living in Eccles, Manchester, pleaded guilty to the offence but said it was committed accidentally after he saw news coverage in April 2021 saying that "the lockdown rules were changing".
"We thought 'That's perfect' because we had a baby shower coming up," he added. "We saw the news and didn't look any further."
The defendant said he and his girlfriend had thought the laws had been relaxed to allow larger outdoor gatherings and "commemorative events" by the time they held the baby shower on May 1, 2021.
But the court heard that the laws did not change until May 17, 2021.
"Did you not pay attention to the dates at which things were changing?" asked Judge Cieciora. "You believed you were allowed to hold the gathering?"
Mr Assis Filipe replied that he thought the change came into force on the first of the month, adding: "Initially it was only going to be five people, but we saw the news and invited the rest of them."
The court heard that Mr Assis Filipe earned around £900 a month from his part-time job.
Judge Cieciora said she would allow payment by instalments and asked if £100 a month was "doable".
The defendant said it would not be, because as a household that would mean he and his girlfriend were paying £200 monthly.
The judge said she could lower the amount to £50, but only if it "affects the cost of living", and "not so you can still watch Sky Sports or anything".
She warned: "If you don't make the payment this stays on court records forever and you could find bailiffs turning up."
The case is one of numerous Covid-related prosecutions going through the courts in England and Wales as ministers are issued fines for hosting lockdown parties.
An official review has so far found that a third of penalty fines to the public were issued wrongfully.
Data obtained by The Independent shows that 29 per cent of charges reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) since March 2020 were found to be "incorrect" - 839 in total.
Experts warn that the CPS figures do not represent the true scale of miscarriages of justice, because prosecutors do not review charges heard behind closed doors under the "secretive" single justice procedure.
It has seen thousands of people handed huge fines for Covid offences in their absence, without entering pleas or having legal representation.
Anyone who does not pay a Covid fine within 28 days can be charged with an offence, and there is currently no appeals process for those that want to defend the fine.
