Costa Blanca resident Michael Woods was left furious as he gets fined €600 for walking his dog whilst people arrive from Madrid for Easter.

As holiday trippers try to get down to the Costa Blanca from Spain’s Madrid, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, Michael Woods blew a gasket after hearing about it having just recently been fined €600 for a dog walk.
Michael told the Euro Weekly News:
“Sunday April 5 I was fined €600 for walking on the beach (with my dog). The Molinell (Oliva) beach is 400m from my house which lies in a touristic area where at this time over 95 per cent of the properties are empty. In the three weeks we’ve been under lockdown I might have seen five others on the beach also with their dogs and another five in the whole urbanisation. I don’t see what justifies the €600 as obviously I didn’t pose a threat to others and/or myself. In fact, the officer was the only person who had come within 2m from me in that time!”
What seems a hefty fine considering Michael’s actions and clear isolation from others apart from the what appears over zealous policeman, the situation of the behaviour of Madrid residents trying to get to the coast has inflamed many.
Dawn Watkins Palmer from the Costa Blanca was furious too and when told of Michael’s €600 fine exploded into a rant in her Welsh dulcet tones:
“We have Covid idiots attempting to go against the State of Alarm set by the Prime Minister and we have idiots trying to escape Madrid and risk spreading the deadly virus and this poor man gets fined a horrendous amount for self isolating and simply walking his dog. I hear and see this as our neighbour has just arrived from Madrid clearly breaking the regulations and getting away with it, where’s the fine and police action now? The police are picking off locals for trivial offences, but not apprehending the serious culprits, the world’s gone mad!”