MP Margaret Ferrier sentenced to 270 hours community order for violating Covid rules
Ann MP who took the train from London Scotland After learning that she tested positive COVID was sentenced to a 270-hour community order for breaking virus rules.
MP Margaret Ferrier has admitted to visiting many parts of Glasgow after being tested for Covid, putting people at risk.
She has nine months to complete a 270-hour community “payback” order.
Sheriff Craig Turnbull, who imposed the order at the Glasgow Sheriff’s Court on Tuesday, told MPs:
“You deliberately ignored the rules and did not quarantine.
He added: “It cannot be overlooked that your actions were taken during a time of serious restrictions before the vaccination program began.”
After visiting a shop in Glasgow, Rutherglen and Hamilton West Independent MPs traveled by train to London to speak while awaiting the results of their COVID-19 tests in the Houses of Parliament.
After learning he tested positive for the virus, Ms. Ferrier took the train back to Glasgow.
Ferrier, 62, admitted at a hearing in Glasgow Sheriff’s Court last month that it was negligent and reckless to “put the public at risk of infection, disease and death”.
Ferrier, a former SNP parliamentarian, was stripped of his party’s whip after his crimes came to light in September 2020, but remains independent.
She faced renewed calls to resign from the House of Representatives following her guilty plea.
At a hearing last month, the court heard Ferrier was tested for Covid-19 on Sept. 26 after exhibiting symptoms such as a cough.
The next day, after reading to a congregation of about 45 people at Mass at St Mungo’s Church in Glasgow, she made her way to Vick’s Bar on Main Street in Prestwick, South Ayrshire.
She then traveled by train to London on 27 September and spoke at the Commons later that day.
A short time later, she was found to have tested positive for the virus.
The court heard that Test and Protect tried to contact her three times and left two voicemails around 10 a.m. that day, before Ferrier returned the call almost four hours later at around 2 p.m.
Ferrier then returned to his hotel where he spent the night before returning to Euston, London and catching the train back to Glasgow.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/glasgow-glasgow-sheriff-court-london-scotland-parliament-b2165895.html MP Margaret Ferrier sentenced to 270 hours community order for violating Covid rules