A judge rapped the police and prosecutors as she threw out the case against a teen fined £10,000 for allegedly hosting a houseparty in breach of covid rules. 

Isaac Parsons, 19, was accused of holding a party at his home in Wick Lane, Devizes, last September that was attended by more than 30 people.

In a Facebook post, Wiltshire Police said they had issued a £10,000 fine to party host. They claimed the party was attended by 80 to 100 people.

Sitting at Swindon Magistrates' Court on Monday, District Judge Joanna Dickens dismissed the case - and criticised the Crown Prosecution Service and police for how it was handled. You can read the family's reaction to the case being dismissed here. 

She said: "Coronavirus is serious. We’re all worried about it. Never before have I dismissed a charge.

"For these ten thousand pound penalties, it’s a huge amount of money for people to pay and most people, who are normal people, can’t pay ten thousand pounds.

"A lot of people would want to appeal that. You would not want to appeal a one hundred pound fine, and most people don’t appeal parking fines.

"Ultimately, it was clear to me, quite understandably, people do make mistakes, and the CPS, the mistake they are now making is to proceed.

"If they said to me I’ll just issue another penalty for one hundred pounds, I’d have no problem with that, I would have said fine, but not what they’re asking the court to do.

READ MORE: Family of teen fined £10,000 for covid houseparty speak out

"They’re asking, and I want to be clear about that, they’re asking the court to proceed with a prosecution that otherwise would never have happened if it wasn’t for the fact they got it wrong in the first place.

"It seems to me they’re seeking to get a situation where someone could be guilty, have a criminal record in circumstances where they would not have otherwise got one because it’s led by the Crown’s own mistake. I appreciate it’s a genuine mistake.

"I do want to make an observation that a ten thousand pound fine, if they’re going to be issued, they should at the very least contain the correct and relevant sections [of law] to allow people to work out what their rights to appeal are.

"This case does worry me, and trouble me, that there could be a situation where other ten thousand pound fines have been bandied about by police in circumstances where they shouldn’t have been.

"It’s a matter for the police whether they research into those other ones, they may or may not have imposed during this time.

"Nothing of what I have said is intended in any way to suggest that breaking coronavirus rules is anything less than a serious matter for us all.

"That’s my comment. It’s a very unusual case for the court to not amend a charge in the interests of justice.

"There’s a lot of case law on it and the leading case says you should normally amend, but the court does have a wider jurisdiction in relation to the interests of justice and for those reasons, that’s my reasoning for not allowing [the amendment]."

The CPS said it had noted the judge's comments, according to reports.