NORTH Wales Police's chief police officer has blasted someone for travelling 80 miles to go fishing in North Wales.

Chief Constable Carl Foulkes joined officers who were making sure people were adhering to lockdown and travel restrictions in the Conwy area on Saturday.

The chief constable tweeted: "Caught up this morning with officers in and around Conwy doing a great job engaging with community and in a small number of cases having to enforce the regulations, travelling 80 miles to go fishing can never be considered to be local!"

North Wales Police have been urging people not to travel into North Wales while coronavirus lockdown measures are in place.

Most people have followed advice, but officers have had to talk to people travelling to North Wales beaches, mountains and other beauty spots, particularly on Bank Holiday weekends.

Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Nigel Harrison said: “Please stay in your primary residence. North Wales will still be here once the pandemic is over and we look forward to getting things back to normal and welcoming people back as soon as we can.

“The NHS and other key workers are doing an incredible job in keeping the public safe, but we ask you to consider that increasing the population of our area will place an unreasonable burden on them. Don’t be the selfish one that undoes all the good work that has been done over the last nine weeks this is about making sure loved ones are able to get out and enjoy north Wales once again as soon as possible , the police should not be needed to reinforce common sense.

“We thank you for your continued support and understanding in these exceptional times, and we continue to work hard to make north Wales as safe as possible.”

On Friday the maximum penalties for breaching the lockdown increased.

The existing fines structure, which imposed a £60 fine for a first offence rising to £120 for a second and subsequent offences, has been replaced by a new structure in which the fines double for every offence – rising from £60 to £120 to £1,920 for the sixth offence.