A hairdresser who made headlines in 2021 is under scrutiny once again after refusing to pay her fines for breaching the covid lockdown.
Sinead Quinn gathered fines amounting to more than £8000 when she was found guilty last August of repeatedly breaking the lockdown rules.
She was convicted of ten charges at her salon Quinn Blakey Hairdressing and given 28 days to pay the fines and costs.
However, just a day after shocking images of Prime Minister Boris Johnson emerged at an alleged ‘lockdown party’, Sinead’s fine remains unpaid.
It has been over 280 days since the fine was first issued at her salon in Oakenshaw, near Bradford. The fine superseded £17,000 in fixed penalty notices which were dropped.
Today a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The fine remains unpaid and enforcement action is still continuing.”
It is not clear when enforcement action began, nor what action has been taken so far, reports YorkshireLive.
However, back in December, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS), an agency of the Ministry of Justice, confirmed it was taking enforcement action against the salon owner over the unpaid fines.
In a statement issued in December, a HMCTS spokesman outlined options open to the agency including clamping and selling Ms Quinn’s vehicle, issuing a warrant of arrest or increasing the fine by 50 per cent.
Ms Quinn did not attend the court hearing on August 13, but did send a strange letter to the court explaining that she “does not accept the role of defendant” along with an inky fingerprint.
The hearing went ahead in her absence, with prosecutor Tahir Hanif recounting the occasions when Kirklees Council and West Yorkshire Police had attended Quinn Blakey Hairdressing on Bradford Road, Oakenshaw and found Ms Quinn breaking lockdown rules.
Magistrates agreed that on November 9, 11, 21, 23, 26 and November 27 2020 she had failed to close a restricted business not permitted to remain open in England and also found it proved that on November 5, 9, 11, and 21 that year Miss Quinn obstructed a person carrying out a function under the coronavirus number four regulations.
She was ordered to pay a fine of £6,000, costs of £2,246 and a £190 surcharge, while her previous £17,000 in fixed penalty notices were dropped as the prosecution superseded those penalties.
The lockdown-defying hairdresser raised more than £10,000 after setting up a Go Fund Me page during her battle with the authorities according to Hull Live.
YorkshireLive has approached Ms Quinn for comment.
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