Surgical-Mask Thefts Spur U.K. Police Crackdown Amid Virus

(Bloomberg) --

London police aren’t trying to cover it up. Stealing face masks amid the coronavirus pandemic will land you in jail.

A man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of stealing a large number of face masks from north London ambulance stations and attempting to sell them online. A few miles across London, another man got a three-month sentence for stealing masks from a National Health Service hospital.

“I am saddened that anyone would take advantage of the NHS for their financial gain at such a critical time,” Detective Inspector Jason Colby said in a statement Thursday. “We will continue to crack down on anyone attempting to take advantage of our emergency services for personal gain, especially at such an unprecedented time.”

The U.K, which has suffered more than 7,000 deaths so far, is likely to extend its lockdown for weeks as the virus continues to take a fatal grip on the country.

The man arrested Wednesday was a contractor working with the London Ambulance Service.

Police and prosecutors around Europe are cracking down on people exploiting the virus. Earlier this week a woman who spat at an English police officer and later said she hoped he’d “die of corona” was sentenced to eight months in prison.

“The coronavirus pandemic is a crisis for everyone, but humanity and compassion, as well as our basic rights, must still prevail,” they said.

Still, some countries are releasing prisoners to relieve pressure on jails.

• French justice ministry said Thursday that there are 8,500 fewer inmates in the country’s jails since March 16.
• “The lockdown has considerably decreased street crime and caused a slowdown in prosecutors’ activity,” the justice ministry said in a statement. “The number of incarcerations has thus very strongly decreased.”
• The average number of incarcerations is down to 70 daily since mid-March vis-a-vis 250 per day ordinarily.
• The coronavirus has also led to early releases, the French justice ministry said, but that only concerns prisoners set to be released by end-May, excluding those convicted for the most serious crimes such as terrorism or intra-family violence.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.