A young TikTok star was fined for breaking lockdown
(Picture: PA)A teenage TikTok star was fined for breaking lockdown when she met with friends at a rented apartment to create social media content “for work”, a court has heard.
Ella Myatt, 19, was one of six women accosted by police at the £65-a-night apartment in Beckenham, south London, when officers were called out to reports of a party in lockdown on January 22 last year.
PC Benjamin Levett, who broke up the gathering, said they heard music and the sound of bottles being cleared when they arrived, but the women “could not understand how they had committed an offence”.
“Ms Myatt stated that she was famous on a social media application called TikTok whereby she was therefore at the apartment for work reasons in order to film work material for her social media”, the PC told Westminster magistrates court.
Myatt and 20-year-old Millie Pearton, both from Bromley, were prosecuted for breaking the government’s Covid regulations at a time when London was under a Tier 4 lockdown.
Court papers reveal the first floor property, at TLK Apartments in High Street, Beckenham, had been hired by the mother of another woman, Amia Thomas, who was also present at the gathering.
“As I arrived at the location, I could hear loud music coming from the first floor room facing the High Street”, said PC Levett in his witness statement.
“I saw a female look through the window and I could then hear glass bottles smashing as if someone was frantically moving a number of bottles upon police arrival.
“When the front door opened, a group of females were walking down the stairs. There were four females in total on the stairwell. I now know one of the females on the stairwell to be Ms Millie Pearton.
“I then met two further females in the room straight ahead as you walk up the second flight of stairs which is the room that I heard the music from and heard the glass bottles smashing.
“Ms Ella Myatt and Miss Amia Thomas – these two females were friends of the four females I met on the stairwell.”
The officer said the women were told they had broken the Covid rules, and Ms Thomas’ mother Christina was called to attend the property.
“(She) explained that she had booked the apartment for her daughter and a friend”, said PC Levett. “(I) explained this was not permitted during the lockdown period. Christina understood and apologised.
“I explained that she had breached coronavirus legislation …by allowing her daughter to stay at the location.”
Neither Myatt nor Pearton paid their £200 fixed penalty notices and were prosecuted behind closed doors through the Single Justice Procedure. They did not enter pleas and were convicted in their absence.
Myatt was handed a £300 fine, plus £134 in court costs and fees. Pearton was told to pay a £440 fine plus £154 in costs and fees.
