North Yorkshire Police fined 61 people over the weekend to people deemed to have made unnecessary journeys.
Senior officers criticised people for ‘ignoring numerous warnings’ and heading to the county for a day out.
A total of 31 fines were issued on Saturday to people visiting from West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and as far away as Kent.
Seventeen fines were issued in Malham alone – with 13 being written in an hour, as day-trippers thronged to the North Yorkshire village.
One officer posted on Facebook:
Whist working yesterday I had request colleague assistance on several occasions. I wasn’t outside a nightclub, I was at Malham!
Politely engaging with folk to go back to where they came from (Kent, Barnsley, Bradford, Dewsbury, Accrington…) their sense of entitlement kicked in, and I endured more abuse than I ever have dealing with drunken idiots outside nightclubs.
One group spitting at the ground in front of me, one bloke screaming in my face in front of his children after he had also abused a farmer who had challenged him about his dog chasing sheep, and climbing over dry stone walls to avoid footpaths.
The excuses were endless, including ‘BBC spreading lies’, ‘we don’t believe in the disease’, ‘human rights’.
People ‘blatantly ignoring’ lockdown
A further 30 fines were issued on Sunday, with officers issuing six fines in Brotherton to people gathering to go off-road biking.
Other unnecessary journeys included a man travelling from Yarm to Wakefield to pick up paint and two men travelling to Bradford to view a car.
Speaking about this weekend’s enforcement Assistant Chief Constable Mike Walker said:
“Up until this weekend, the vast majority of both residents and visitors to North Yorkshire have acted responsibly and in accordance to government guidance and abided by the rules around only travelling for essential reasons.
“However, we are definitely starting to see a turning of the tide in some areas, with some blatantly ignoring the reason why we have been in a lockdown situation for the past five weeks and making a decision to no longer stay home and save lives.
“As I have previously mentioned, this is not about finding loopholes in the guidance to justify having a day out.
“This is about keeping your elderly, vulnerable grandmother safe, your asthmatic child safe or your diabetic father safe. So please think about why it’s important to you personally to stop the spread of this virus.
“Think about the personal reason, or the family member you are staying home for and if you can’t do it for the health and safety of the nation, please do it for them.”