Mum fined for lockdown rule breach by babysitting child in her ‘bubble’ - days before Downing Street party

A single mum has been fined more than £800 for breaking lockdown rules by babysitting a child in her ‘bubble’ - days before Downing Street’s alleged Christmas party.

Elizabeth MacKenzie, 47, and her daughter Angel, 13, bubbled with friend Petra, 36, and her daughter Kacie, 12.

The women are both stay-at-home carers for vulnerable family members and ‘bubbled up’ to offer each other respite and childcare support on weekends.

But after an apparent ‘tip off’ about a party at the home, police turned up and found the girls watching a film with hot chocolates.

They found a third child there - a little girl, 13, who was officially living with the MacKenzie family for a month while her single dad recovered from a broken back after a work accident.

Police accused the mum of facilitating a gathering of two or more people in a private dwelling.

It happened just two weeks before Downing Street’s alleged Christmas gathering, which is said to have involved 50 workers break rules to party.

Carer Elizabeth from Preston, Lancashire, was hauled in front of magistrates on 2 December.

She was found guilty of participating in the gathering of two or more people in a private dwelling in a Tier Three area.

The court ruled that Elizabeth had breached lockdown rules by having the other girl under her care while in a bubble with Kacie’s family.

The single mum now has to pay a whopping huge fine of £834 for the breach of rules and will see £20 a month disappear from her bank account each month as a result

‘I get fined for looking after a child...whilst Boris sips wine and parties’

The fine has tipped her over budget and she has been forced to look for debt consolidation solutions.

Elizabeth, a full time carer to disabled daughter Kayleigh, 26, said: “It makes me angry.

“I get fined for looking after a child and made a fool out of by a police officer whilst Boris sips wine and parties - how is that fair?

“The court made me feel like I put lives at risk but I was just looking after children who were trapped inside anyway and not allowed out to play.

“My son loves politics and was very upset because of the Hancock thing and now Boris with his party two weeks after the night that I’ve been fined for babysitting - it’s just so unfair.

“I’m a single parent with underlying health issues and the police scared me and the kids when they came to our house that night.

“I was in a bubble with the mum of the child who was staying at ours - we helped each other with looking after the kids regularly as we are both stay-at-home carers.

“I only moved here from Scotland four years ago, I have nobody else here.

“I have chronic back pain and nerve damage so I don’t keep well myself.

“It was very important that I had that bubble for support and help.

“They kept saying it was a birthday party but it wasn’t - we had one child staying with us for the night, there was no music, just homework followed by a film with snacks.

“I have never been in trouble before and I was made to feel like a criminal. I can’t believe this has happened to us.”

Elizabeth had her three children, Kayleigh, 26, Lewis, 19, and Angel, 13, living with her last December when the police ame to her door on December 5.

She also had another child, 13, living her for three weeks after schools shut. The girl’s dad was in an accident at work that left him unable to walk.

‘I was made to feel like I had put lives at risk’

Elizabeth and Kacie’s mum Petra are both stay-at-home carers and had formed a bubble, taking it in turns to babysit each other’s daughters every weekend.

Petra’s daughter Kacie, 13, was staying over for the night of what just so happened to be Angel’s 13th birthday, as part of regular childcare arrangements.

Kacie, Angel and the third pal were watching White Chicks with hot chocolates in their pyjamas after finishing their homework when Elizabeth got a knock at the door from police at around 11pm.

Elizabeth said: “The police came to the door and explained they’d had a call saying that I was having a party.

“I only had the kids who lived with me at home plus one other child whose family I was in a bubble with.

“All the girls did was do their homework, practice some TikTok dances, watched ‘White Chicks’ with hot chocolates and then upstairs for face masks in their pyjamas - hardly a party.

“A male police officer said we couldn’t have a bubble in Tier Three and then stuck his foot in the door, saying he was coming in to check whilst I was explaining the situation to his female colleague.”

The night in question was just 13 days before 50 government employees had an alleged party on 18 December.

She said: “I’m a stay-at-home carer and my past jobs have been in childcare and working with kids with extra needs - I would never put their health at risk.

“I was made to feel like I put people’s lives at risk which made me cry, so yes, I’m so angry at the system, I’m angry at Boris, I’m angry at the police and magistrates but mostly I’m hurt because of how low they made me feel.”

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