A woman from Darwen has been slapped with a £1,000 fine after failing to quarantine when she returned from a trip to Amsterdam.

The woman, who is in her 20s, was visited by officers from Greater Manchester Police on Tuesday, after they discovered she had returned to her job at a high school in Bolton despite only flying back from Amsterdam two days earlier.

A self-isolation period of 14 days is a requirement of anyone arriving back to the UK after international travel, with the exception of certain countries.

Police also fined a man in his 40s, from Horwich, after he returned from Spain on Sunday and was instructed to quarantine for 14 days, as per The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) Regulations 2020.

It transpired that instead of self-isolating, the man had gone to work at his business in the town.

Officers from GMP’s Bolton division attended his business on Tuesday and informed him of the £1,000 fine as a result of his breach.

Chief Inspector Nicola Williams, of GMP’s Bolton district, said: “I hope these fines send out a clear message to those who wrongly believe they are exempt from this rule that we will enforce this wherever we find there to be breaches.

“This is an immensely challenging time for all of us - whether it's the impact these restrictions are having on our personal lives, or on our working lives.

"However, it is absolutely vital that the town comes together and does what it can to curb what is a worrying rate of transmission in the area, and we have been working tirelessly at GMP and alongside the council to ensure that we too are doing all we can.

“This includes those who recklessly flout quarantining rules when coming back from abroad and who run the risk of infected others; especially when they are working or socialising with groups of people and putting them at risk.

"We are still working by the principles of engaging, explaining and encouraging before opting for the last resort of enforcing, but there is no tolerance for those who are blatantly ignoring the rules that the rest of us are doing our best to abide by on a daily basis."

Greater Manchester Police have so far handed out four £1000 FPNs to people failing to self-isolate on arrival from countries on the UK’s quarantine list.

Those who are required to self-isolate may be contacted by Public Health England (PHE) to check they are following the regulations.

If there is no response after a number of attempts of trying to make contact, the details of the individual will be referred to the police by Border Force.

Reports are also received from members of the public about people who are suspected of failing to quarantine.