Police sent out to tackle Preston lockdown breaches overnight including house parties

Some of the reports included house parties and officers issued fixed penalty notices to those breaching the restrictions.

A spokesman for Preston Police said: "Last night officers from Team 5 Incident Response attended a number of reports of breaches of the Coronavirus restrictions across Preston.

"These reports were in addition to a busy night of attending and investigating reports of domestics, burglaries, concern for safety’s, assaults and missing people.

"Such reports included house parties in which large numbers of people from different households had gathered inside private home’s.

"We highly discourage anyone deliberately flouting the rules and attending such gatherings; as such some of individual’s involved in last nights gatherings were issued with fixed penalty notices of £100."

Preston remains subject to government intervention due to higher rates of coronavirus than the national average.

The restrictions are in place to protect "the health of people, their families and their friends and to stop the spread of the virus".

Police have reminded people to prevent the spread by abiding by the restrictions in place. This means the following restrictions apply -

- Residents are not able to host others in their homes or gardens.

- Residents are not be able to visit other people’s homes or gardens, in or out of the affected area.

- Residents are not be able to interact with others from outside of their household in indoor venues.

- Residents can only meet in groups of up to six from different households in public outdoor spaces.

A police spokesman said that if anyone who is concerned about a potential coronavirus incident it can be reported using the force's online system by following this link at Lancashire Police