The owners of a gift card shop who refused to close during lockdown after arguing they sold the same items as WHSmith have been fined £35,000 by magistrates.

Alasdair Walker-Cox, 54, and wife Lydia, 50, were penalised for breaking coronavirus rules after they stayed open despite non-essential shops being told to shut.

They insisted they did nothing wrong because they sold essentials such as newspapers, snacks and baking products, and said they would rather go to prison than close.

Worcestershire Regulatory Services hit them with seven separate fines after ordering them to close the doors of Grace Cards and Books in Droitwich, Worcestershire.

The couple were first fined £1,000 last November and accumulated a whopping £20,000 in penalties for keeping their shop open, as Metro reported in February.

Mr Walker-Cox went on trial at Kidderminster magistrates’ court to deny failing to comply with the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) Regulations.

But he was found guilty of the charges and slapped with £5,000 fines for each breach, totalling £35,000, yesterday.

Sentencing, district judge Ian Strongman, said: ‘The products Mr Walker-Cox had in his shop were not those of a food retailer but those of a confectioner.

‘For example, if you sell a Mars bar in a shop, you are not a food retailer. Again, if a shop happens to sell a few newspapers, it is not a newsagents.

‘It’s a card and book shop who happen to sell a few newspapers.

‘On this occasion, the local authority were right to serve the prohibitions notices.

‘He brought this upon himself.’

Giving evidence, Walker-Cox, whose wife Lydia sat in the public gallery, told the court how they had compared their business to others like WHSmith and decided to stay open.

He said: ‘We noticed WHSmith were open and we sold similar items to them so we remained open. We could increase our offerings of essential goods.

‘We have lots of cake-making materials and we sold drinks before lockdown and brought a Coca-Cola refrigerator earlier this year.

‘It was dismissed by the council as not being essential.

‘After a visit on the February 19 by the council, we sought guidance from the council about how we could go about being an essential offering.

‘That advice wasn’t forthcoming.’

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