For the past two years, my husband Michael and I have been fighting an exhausting and financially devastating legal battle after we kept our small coffee shop open for a time during the 2020 lockdown.
We were subjected to a prolonged campaign of harassment and defamation after an anonymous complaint to Plymouth’s Environmental Health Department about staff in our café not wearing facemasks. We were also accused of not enforcing lockdown rules on customers entering our shop.
We thought the matter was resolved when we pointed out to visiting Environmental Health Officers that legitimate exemptions applied, and that if we had challenged staff or customers about not wearing masks we could have faced fines under the Equality Act 2010.
Michael and I thought that was the end of the matter until our local paper, PlymouthLive, became involved, and news reporters gathered on the pavement outside our café and began to interrogate passers-by.
When in November 2020 the Government announced that food and drink outlets would be restricted to takeaway service only, the police started to make threatening appearances in our coffee shop.
After a great deal of thought, we made the decision not to withdraw table service to our customers, some of whom were vulnerable and elderly.
PlymouthLive’s comments’ section condemned the stance we had taken, stating that we should have followed the rules “like everyone else”. But we also received support from people who felt we were standing up for common sense.
We sought legal help throughout this ordeal, including a lawyer who came over from Ireland to speak on our behalf. We were consistently advised that we hadn’t broken any laws – that staff exemptions for facemasks were legitimate, and there was no requirement in law for us to remove tables and chairs from our coffee shop in November 2020.
Indeed, as we now know, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed in autumn 2022 (on I’m a Celebrity…) that there was never any enforceable coronavirus ‘law’, only ‘guidelines’.
We are also now aware that other business owners who were issued fines under the same ‘legislation’ have had them overturned on appeal.
Despite all this, Michael and I are being threatened with prison if we don’t pay the fines that remain outstanding. I believe that the local authorities decided to make some kind of example of us, encouraged by the local press.
To us, the message seemed clear: “We are the authority and you must abide by our rules and regulations (even though we don’t always abide by them ourselves…)”
Because we followed our consciences, we have endured two years of legal wrangling, court appearances, threats, and negative articles in the local press – including insults from angry members of the public urging others to smash our shop windows.
So how did it all start?
Early in 2020 we read Freedom of Information requests to Public Health England and other information in the public domain that we found deeply disturbing and which led us to question what the Government was saying.
Ultimately, at Magistrates’ Court, our limited company (Finla), my husband, Michael, and I were collectively fined £30,000 plus £12,000 costs. Sadly for us, in April 2022 we were forced to close our business of six years.
On appeal, after we’d already paid the lion’s share of the costs, our personal fines were reduced to £10,000 plus costs, totalling just over £14,000.
We now only have a few months to pay the outstanding fines before we face the judiciary again in March 2023 to hear whether we will be taken into custody for “non-payment of fines”.
It certainly feels as if the odds have been stacked against us from the start.
I know ours is just one of many tales of hardship in the last couple of years.
I feel many – hopefully most – people are beginning to understand the toll on people’s health caused by the lockdowns. But we feel people would be equally shocked to learn of the treatment meted out to us by the authorities, and the way in which we have lost our small family business.
If you feel able to help, we would be most grateful for any financial contribution, however small. We have set up a crowdfunder here.
At this stage, we are losing hope…. We would love to get back on track with our lives with our two young children.
Please help if you can – and thank you for taking the time to read our story.
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JSO vs Pride. The lefty wamminz worst nightmare – who to support??
I’m looking forward to the battle of hurty words – because the gods know that there isn’t enough muscle power in either group for an actual battle – and who the police will give greater protection to….
“Huge Nebraska Solar Park Completely Smashed to Pieces by One Single Hailstorm!”
Yeah! Dance on nature!
best news I’ve heard for ages!
I’ve got news for you Dinger.. that wasn’t nature that did that. It was a consequence of massive geoengineering. Weather modification/warfare. A rather nice irony in it though just the same..
Take a look at this..
https://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/aftermath-of-chemical-ice-nucleation/
Wow! I really don’t know how to take that? Is it real? are we meddling that much? surely not, please tell me its just a conspiracy theory!
It is not a conspiracy theory Dinger. Its frighteningly real, and if you start to do some research on the subject there’s a good chance your jaw will drop to the floor.
I’ll say something I’m 100% confident is true.. there is NO natural weather any more, and the methods they are using to control it are mind boggling. Want some forest fires – easy, want to wreck the autumn harvest – easy, want to cause havoc by flooding – easy, want an earthquake – easy, and every MET office in the world knows its going on but they say nothing..
Absolutely….it’s true..and not new…
..there is a UN treaty on the ‘Convention of the prohibition of military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques’ 1976…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Modification_Convention
This is a long article from the US National Science Foundation…’A report on the Special Commission on Weather Modification’
..from 1965
https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/publications/1965/nsb1265.pdf
Both are worth a look just for some background….
Don’t know about you , but I detect an air of brewing, deepening anger taking over the general demeanour of the headlines and posts today! I wonder why?
Just more athletes in prime physical condition dropping dead and/or being rushed to hospital. Rugby players in this instance, and two from the same club. Just par for the course that people in the prime of their lives and who have superior health and fitness to the general population should experience these unforeseen tragedies. Mere white noise nowadays….
”Two promising players from Auckland’s Suburbs Rugby Football Club have been rushed to hospital in a critical condition after suffering separate on-field medical events in the space of a week.
One of the players was seen collapsing on the field before being rushed to hospital and undergoing surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain.
In the other incident, Auckland Rugby has praised spectators who rushed to the aid of a player over the weekend who is believed to have suffered a seizure and stopped breathing. The spectators performed CPR on the stricken man until paramedics arrived.
The events come after a Bay of Plenty rugby league player and a rugby union player from Ruatoria both died after on-field incidents.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/two-auckland-suburbs-rugby-club-players-suffer-critical-life-threatening-injuries-in-consecutive-weeks/RKKTBRLSCNAXLCFFI4UIZTSLRE/
“Safe and effective” in action!
Yep..spotted this one to add to the growing numbers…
https://sandrarose.com/2023/06/tv-doctor-and-vaccination-expert-dr-alfredo-victoria-dies-suddenly-at-42/
A popular Mexican TV doctor who regularly appeared on “Mexico Today” as a “vaccination expert” died suddenly from a myocardial infarction, according to reports.
Dr. Alfredo Victoria Moreno was only 42 years old when he died in his sleep early Monday. He was a vocal advocate of COVID mRNA vaccines.
Dr. Alfredo’s massive global fanbase took to social media to mourn his untimely death. They referred to his passing as a “tragedy.”
Watch: Not a single Question Time audience member shows support for Rwanda policy
The constant propaganda on issues like immigration, climate change, affirmative action, gender transitioning, etc mean that people are reluctant to indicate publicly what they actually believe. To hold out that this QT audience poll proves that the Government is way out of line with the public is massively disingenuous, and is simply another propaganda tool.
“Yorkshire Building Society ‘closed vicar’s account after trans protest’”
This is getting more and more alarming. Is anyone out there compiling a list of banks and building societies which will summarily close customer accounts for not complying with The Narrative™, and are there any recommendations for banks that have stricter rules on this sort of ideological persecution?
The best thing about the Rwanda policy is that it shows so clearly how all the lefty do-gooders are really a bunch of racists at heart, over compensating for their feelings of guilt.
If the policy were to ship immigrants to Switzerland or Norway or Canada you wouldn’t hear a peep.
The problem is that it’s Rwanda which they assume without having been there that there is something fundamentally wrong with the place.
I agree except for one picky point – they are racists by their definition of racism, which is to notice differences based on race. My definition of racism is to have a blanket belief about an entire race that disregards individuals, which just seems a bit weird to me.
“Huge Nebraska solar park completely smashed…”
Probable MSM reporting: “Extreme destructive weather events are getting worse! Build more solar parks.”
,to save the solar parks from extreme weather events,.. Shish!
There is absolutely no way that any of this money is even ‘real’..is there?
https://www.dossier.today/p/new-york-quietly-shuts-down-its-250?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=69009&post_id=132199406&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
New York State officials announced on Friday afternoon that they are discontinuing their controversial mobile phone vaccine passport program, known as “Excelsior Pass,” citing “reduced demand for access to digital COVID-19 test and vaccine records.”
The Excelsior Pass program began in early 2021 with an estimated cost burden of $2.5 million. It later balooned to a sum approaching one hundred times over the original budget, with an approximate amount of $250 million dollars being handed out to IBM, Deloitte and Boston Consulting Group.
Deloitte and Boston Consulting Group have billed New York taxpayers approximately $200 million for “marketing” and “buildout” costs associated with the program since 2021, while IBM has billed around $40 million plus $200,000 a month since 2021 in “data storage” fees, according to state records…..
You don’t have to green with him, but this is a very calm and collected speech from Max Blumenthal’s as he addresses the UN about the Ukraine/Russia conflict
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq4643bsH8w
……it links to the study and report on where the money for Ukraine has and hasn’t gone….! These questions need to be asked and answered….
All aboard the gravy train: an independent audit of US funding for Ukrainehttps://thegrayzone.com/2023/06/27/gravy-train-independent-audit-ukraine/
Edward Dowd
@DowdEdward
Hey Doctors out there…is 25 sigma above trend too high for Haematological System disorders? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We are going to need your help on our next report.
The so called governmental health authorities won’t be able to run from this data.
Stay tuned.
(Apparently he and Dr Kelly Victory will be giving out more information soon….I will keep us updated..along with fellow Twitter watchers, I’m sure!)
https://maryannedemasi.substack.com/p/no-more-moderna-jab-for-children
No more Moderna jab for children under 12 in AustraliaThe Australian government has quietly pulled Moderna’s (Spikevax) covid-19 vaccine for children under 12 years and won’t explain why.
It’s now not possible to look at Twitter at all without a twitter account. Could you post the Martina Pastorelli interview on a publicly accessible platform please
I think Twitter is down..I can’t see anything..and the Daily Mail have said it’s crashed!!?
..according to the Mail..the lack of access to non-subscribers is only temporary….so you might be able to access once it’s back up..