Squatters moved into a £300,000 beachside holiday home during the coronavirus lockdown - only to be caught out by neighbours. The pair ...
Squatters moved into a £300,000 beachside holiday home during the coronavirus lockdown - only to be caught out by neighbours.
The pair drove 200 miles from their home in Surrey to stay at the rental property in Cardigan Bay, Wales.
But neighbours quickly became suspicious when they turned up out of the blue.
Squatters moved into this £300,000 beachside holiday home in Cardigan Bay, Wales, during the coronavirus lockdown - only to be caught out by neighbours
The couple told locals they had bought the £1,500-a-week cottage and arrived with all their own pots and pans.
Unconvinced, one neighbour rang the police who came and arrested them on suspicion of burglary.
They were later released without charge but given a fine for non-essential travel.
A neighbour said: 'They must have spotted the place on a holiday cottage website and realised it was empty because of Covid-19.
'They turned with a car, a van towing a motorcycle - they also had their own pots and pans.
'To start with they said they had bought the cottage - then they changed their story and said they were thinking of buying it. I smelled a rat and called police.'
The neighbour added: 'It has amazing views and is completely isolated - they must have thought it would be a perfect spot to be locked down.
'They even pretended they had bought the cottage - what a cheek!'
Eight officers, including a dog handler, turned up to eject the couple and send them back to Surrey.
A Dyfed-Powys Police spokesman said: 'We were called to a report of a possible break in at a property in the Cardigan area.
The pair drove 200 miles from their home in Surrey to stay at the rental property in Cardigan Bay, Wales (pictured)
'Two people were arrested on suspicion of burglary. Following police enquiries they were released no further action at this time for the burglary and given a fixed penalty notice for non-essential travel.'
Welsh officials have been urging tourists not to flock to the country in search of somewhere rural since the UK lockdown began.
They have warned that driving to the Snowdonia National Park does not constitute 'essential travel' and told non-locals to stay away.
A huge sign saying 'Tourists go home' was seen at the entrance to the site last week, while one couple due to check in to a nearby AirBnB were scared off by a neighbour.
The man in Snowdownia, Wales, slammed the pair and accused them of breaking coronavirus lockdown rules.
A huge sign saying 'Tourists go home' was seen at the entrance to the Snowdonia National Park in South Wales last week after non-locals flocked there
Footage that surfaced on Facebook shows the man demanding to know why they were staying in the village of Penmachno. Police were contacted over the incident but no action taken.
Thousands of AirBnB and other rental properties are sitting empty while Britons are confined to their own homes during lockdown.
Some forced to live apart from their relatives because they are at higher risk of the deadly virus have opted for rental homes, but the vast majority cannot be used.
Those in rural or remote parts of the country have urged people not travel to second or holiday homes because their hospitals cannot cope with added pressure.
Wales has been particularly badly hit by the deadly COVID-19 bug, with almost twice as many cases per capita than Scotland or Northern Ireland.
As of Sunday, a total of 5,610 people out of Wales' 3.1million population had been diagnosed with the life-threatening infection.
It means more than one in 600 people have caught the virus in Wales, compared to one in 1,000 in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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