Homeless Man Charged With Breaching Coronavirus Movement Restrictions

A homeless man has been charged with breaching movement restrictions imposed under emergency coronavirus legislation.

Sultan Monsour, 45, of no fixed address, was arrested outside London's Liverpool Street Station on 5th May 2020. He was subsequently charged with "being outside the place [he] was living, namely no fixed address".

Monsour denied the coronavirus offence, but admitted a separate charge of possession of an offensive weapon, when he recently appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Under regulation 6(1) of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions)(England) Regulations 2020 it is an offence for any person to leave or be outside of the place where they are living without reasonable excuse. The maximum penalty for the offence is an unlimited fine on summary conviction, but offenders are normally dealt with via a fixed penalty notice.

In accordance with regulation 6(4), the conditions of regulation 6(1) do not apply to any homeless person.

Spotting the obvious problem with the charge laid by the CPS, District Judge Alexander Jacobs queried: "Is it not a defence that the regulation doesn't apply to a person who is homeless?

"If he is homeless then the charge 'that he left the place he was living, namely no fixed address' doesn’t make sense to me."

Malachy Pakenham, prosecuting, replied that the police had an address for the defendant.

"Unnecessary travel is an offence," Mr Pakenham said.

"The fact is he told police he had an address."

Judge Jacobs replied: "But even the arresting officer said: 'I was arresting him for breaching coronavirus conditions because he had no address'."

The Judge asked Mr Pakenham to make enquiries with the CPS about its position. An hour later the prosecutor returned to tell the court: "We will be proceeding with these charges to trial."

In relation to the offensive weapon, Mr Pakenham said: "On 25th February he was speaking to Italian women about Bangladeshis marrying Italians. He's approached by police and asked about the claw hammer. He said it was for his safety in case anyone wants to attack and kill him."

Monsour interrupted: "The Italian girls made a complaint against me, I didn't touch them. They said that I am gay. I asked them if they liked me and they said no. I asked them why they were talking about me like that, then. They said they were calling the police."

Omololu Thomas, mitigating, said: "He was carrying it for his own protection."

Monsour was fined £200 in relation to the offensive weapon charge.

His trial in relation to the coronavirus charge will take place on 22nd June 2020 and he was granted bail until then.

Whenever a Judge asks "can you make enquiries about this charge?" it is code for "you're not going to get very far with this".

It wouldn't surprise me if this charge quietly disappears into the ether before the trial date.

Quite why it was laid in the first place, who knows?!