A love island star and the former Miss. Britain’s Zara Holland has been fined about $ 6,000 – but spared jail time – for wanting to leave Barbados with her boyfriend after testing positive for coronavirus.
Holland, 25, pleaded guilty to violating a COVID-19 guideline by leaving the struggling Sugar Bay Barbados resort, where she remained pending the outcome of her test, reports The Sun.
She and her beau, Elliott Love, were caught trying to board a plane to the UK to avoid being taken to a quarantine facility.
Holland and Love were tested when they arrived on the island on December 27 and ordered to isolate themselves in their hotel room to await the results. When his result came back positive, they got red straps and said they would be taken to a quarantine center.
Holland, who has been in jail for up to a year, has been warned by Magistrate Ian Weekes that she will receive a nine-month prison sentence if she does not pay the fine within a week, reports Daily Mail.
After the trial, her lawyer Andrew Pilgrim allegedly blamed her for ‘lapse’ in a verdict of a ‘foolish mistake’.
He said she received two negative test results before arriving on the island, but after Love tested positive, she became very nervous when they were told to quarantine in the hotel.
This led to the ‘foolish’ decision of the lovebirds to try to leave, he explained, adding that Holland had the greatest respect for the people of Barbados and had visited the Caribbean resort twice a year for the past six years.
The magistrate said: ‘You can not believe that you are the leader, and you can also do as you please.
“Even though you receive negative test results, it is important that you understand that you need to get approval,” Weekes added.
Pilgrim presented a financial statement to the court proving that his client had the ability to pay the fine, but said she could not pay it immediately as a British bank transfer in Barbados had not yet been approved, according to Daily Mail.
Holland, who breathed a sigh of relief because she was not sent to jail, has been released on £ 7,355 bail, about $ 10,000, and will be free to leave the island once her fine has been paid.
‘We accept the court’s decision. Miss. Holland would like to express its sincere apologies to the entire nation of Barbados. At this stage we have no further comment, ‘said her lawyer outside the court.
Many people reacted to Holland’s punishment as a slap on the wrist and compared her sentence to a Jamaican tourist who was sentenced to six months in prison for violating the island’s rules to buy Fanta and snacks a month ago. it, reports The Sun.