$8,000 for Posting a Selfie? Photographer Breaches Quarantine Laws and Incurs Massive Fine

$8,000 for Posting a Selfie? Photographer Breaches Quarantine Laws and Incurs Massive Fine

A photographer in the United Kingdom has been ordered to pay a fine of more than $8,000 after posting a selfie to Instagram which proved that she had broken quarantine laws.

Carys Ingram who describes herself as a fashion, events, and wedding photographer had flown from Manchester, England to the island of Jersey. Upon arrival, she was then legally obliged to remain in quarantine until receiving a second negative test five days after her return. It emerged in court that Ingram had left her home repeatedly in order to go shopping and to a restaurant.

As reported by The Independent, Ingram posted a selfie to her Instagram of her trip to the El Tico restaurant in St Oen’s Bay. Authorities had attempted to contact Miss Ingram during her isolation but were not able to make contact, and the selfie was used as proof that she was ignoring quarantine regulations.

For her two breaches, Ingram was given the choice of six months in prison or a fine of £6,600 ($8,625), opting for the latter.

It later emerged that one of the passengers on the same flight as Ingram had tested positive for Covid-19.

Lead image from StockPhotoSecrets.

Andy Day's picture

Andy Day is a British photographer and writer living in France. He began photographing parkour in 2003 and has been doing weird things in the city and elsewhere ever since. He's addicted to climbing and owns a fairly useless dog. He has an MA in Sociology & Photography which often makes him ponder what all of this really means.

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58 Comments

Awesome...

"Look at me!" "Look at me!" Look at me!"

Ooopsie...

Unfortunately, this is the world we live in nowadays. Look at any Tik Tok or Instagram influencer. It's a "look at me" society. And with numeric likes and thumbs-up, it's easy to quantify one's "look at me" score vs. others. Social Media prays on our most basic instincts, even if it means doing, rather stupid things, as illustrated in this article.

This is why the world can't have nice things right now....The shallow end of the pool is dragging us all under.

You're not kidding. These idiots really piss me off.

Yep- the 'look at me' generation. I'm sure she'll have an online campaign to have people help her pay for it.

Amen. It's non stop "look at how cool I am" and "how important I am". Do we really need to have you post your dessert?

Guilty of spreading the flu - until proven innocent.

If someone is so self centered that they have no regard for the safety of others during a Pandemic, they deserve all the shame we can heap on them. A million people dead from this in less than a year. It isn't the flu.

7,600,000,000 people on earth 45,000,000 infected 1,200,000 dead. 1.2 million is a insignificant percentage in the overall number of people over a ten month period. If it’s you or a loved one it sucks for you, but again insignificant in the big picture. We all will die at some point, don’t worry about it and live life to the fullest every day.

You're not a statistician are you? You're incorrect. That is actually a significant number. But very nice of you to be willing to sacrifice millions of people so you can continue to live your life normally.

7.6 billion people 1.2 million deaths worldwide .02% of the population. If your weight went up .02% percent you wouldn't notice if your boss gave you a .02% pay raise you wouldn't notice.
According to the 2017 world mortality report by the UN in 2015 there was 56.567 million deaths, that works out to 155,224 people a day died. Averaging a 30 day month for 10 months that's 46,567,200 deaths.
Again if you or a loved one died from covid that sucks for you but in the big picture the numbers are insignificant.

Actuary would disagree with that. You don't understand what statistically significant is based on do you?

Statistical significance is the likelihood that the difference in conversion rates between a given variation and the baseline is not due to random chance.

Use a one-sample t-test because both percentages came from a single sample. Use a two-tailed probability because the null hypothesis does not state the direction of the difference. If the hypothesis is that one particular choice has a greater percentage, use a one-tailed test (divide the two-tailed probability by two).

Not really enough space here to try and briefly explain how percentages are statistically significant or not. Have you ever take a course of study in Statistics?

Let's stick with what chance you have of dying if you should happen to catch Covid, The CFR, Case Fatality Rate. By including the entire population you've entered irrelevant numbers into your equation since you also didn't address the infection rate of the population.

1.2 million is likely an undercount, due to developing countries lacking the same tracking capabilities as developed countries. Still, that works out to about 1 death per 6300 people globally, vs. the UK's which is about 1 in 1500: 4 times as high. And that is starting from zero, and with guidelines and restrictions like mask wearing and social distancing in place. Also, that's just deaths. A lot of covid patients have been left with long term medical issues and, over here in the US, 5 figure hospital bills.

I agree. Im a working Doctor from Germany. And while i dont like when people spread panic, just pretending it doesnt exist is even worse.
One thing a lot of people forget: The Flus death counts are usually estimates, in germany for instance 2018/2019 around 2500 confirmed cases died from the flu. The overall case number reports around 22.000 tho. Thats because the increase in mortality gets put together with the flu. We still lack these datapoints for covid as they will become available only after a few years. But the current death toll numbers, are confirmed cases only! So the actual resulting death count will most likely be a very good bit higher when its all said & done. And oh yeah, Flu isnt something minor either, but for it we DO have a decent vaccine to protect the sick and old. For covid we dont.

Makes me angry to see such a behaviour from the young lady just to feel important.

Y'all can try to pretend China is a good place with honesty and openness... But I'm not buying it, not for a moment. I figure they're underreporting by a factor of 10 at least. 10-20 Mil dead to date? Could be...

Yeah, at least in the US, people across the political spectrum just assume China is falsifying their numbers. It's hard to tell exactly by how much considering how tightly they control information, but I did find an article that estimated a factor of 10 based on urn sales.

Yes 1.2 is probably low and so is the total number infected. Lots of people show no symptoms at all so they were never tested.

Note. If you going to something your not supposed to don't post it for the whole world to see. *Facepalm*
Ps. She's an idiot and deserves the fine. #covidmoron

Well deserved. The next virus may be even more dangerous and an entire generation needs to learn that this isn't a joke or some boomer nonsense.

I think the fine is excessive, make glad to live in the United States.

Depending on the outcome next week this country may go the way of the UK and the rest of Europe.

The point of the fine was to deter others from violating health ordinances by making an example of her. A lesser amount would have been less effective at achieving that deterrence.
Personally as an old timer who believes in Law and Order, I think it was just enough money to make the point. Hopefully she learns to grow up a little bit from this experience.

I never thought my comment would warmly be received and I believe in most law and ordered depending on how the law comes about. I not a fan of administrative policies that are created without an understanding of the situation becoming the law, simply to alleviate fear, then punishing people who get out of line. I am glad to be eleventh generation American, a veteran, and a medical photographer. It is my opinion that this pandemic does not respect your science, political leadership, laws, or fears. It is why you are seeing the political decision of what to do in the United States being pushed down the ladder to the local level.

These people who ignore safe protocols cost all of us. Even if they don't infect us directly, their impact on our social network, resources, our businesses, livelihoods and even our leisure time is being decimated by these irresponsible idiots. $8k it pittance by comparison to their impact on all of us.

Quarantines, self isolation, hand washing, wearing a mask all are effective at reducing the transmission of diseases. Only the federal government has the financial resources needed to effectively fight transmission. Pushing it down to local governments has created financial hardship for local governments and busted their budgets. The patchwork of ordinances has also allowed the virus to spread unchecked since it doesn't recognize boundaries between areas that do attempt to curb transmission and those that are more laissez-faire.
I respect rights to having an opinion, however the means to combat this have been within our reach and anti-science politics has drastically hampered that.
USMC 1976-1979
Be safe out there and look out for your neighbors.

I am not anti-science. I understand science, I switched from science to photography. It is not a monolithic god, it is an ever-changing endless discussion trying to understand the world around us. Wash your hand is truly one of the great medical discoveries of the last century. I am in my late sixties and high risk and have a few other high-risk indicators. I wear a mask because of my job and wash my hands to avoid spreading infections. I have one family member who had Covid-19. Yet I have a young daughter who is 19. I still believe it is an excess punishment which was my original statement. Safe is an illusion.

I respectfully have to disagree. As a working healthcare professional that is able to read the actual data during the last months, i can absolutely say, that staying at home for 1 week for a healthy young woman is by no means excessive compared to the lifechanging or lifethreatening consequences that this behaviour can cause for the overall society.

This fine hurts. A lot. And it should. Because what she did, completely disregarding the rules and even publicly showing it (!) is a very bad example. Not only did she go out, but even shared it on social media to the world. She was begging for punishment.

Staying at home was reasonable, she behaved poorly, now has to deal with the consequences of her own doing. This sounds absolutely fair to me. The financial damage the spreading of the disease causes (carried by many of the people that dont seem to care) is so much more, that 8000€ is much, but nothing in comparison.

You are entitled to your opinion, I am a semi-retired health care worker too and I look at the data where I live and realize the infodemic is worse than reality. We shut down originally all medical procedures not related to COVID-19, who knows how many that hurt as some have yearly higher mortality than COVID-19. Thank God, we do not have socialized medicine the damage economically here will a huge barrier to seeking health care. Now, outside of the major cities in Ohio, very few death it with the growing infection rate. However, the constant beat of the drum in the press is, be afraid while the politicians try to grab more power something I try to never yield to.

Well said Michael. Darwin surely applies here. I see the videos of the Karens and Patriots screaming about their freedom. My friend at ESPN is the only one in a ward who came out alive after 16 days on the ventilator and would be happy to tell them what it was like. This is badass real. Cousin died at 52 here four days into it. Healthy as a horse till then.

I am sorry about your cousin Jim. I watched my father take his last breath a short while ago as cancer took him and I am watching my mother and brother die prisoners in nursing homes as the state tries to protect them from what they have no real power over. I am a lot closer to the end of my life than the beginning, seven years from the average expectancy. As a medical photographer, veteran, former conflict photographer, and street photographer I have not seen to many wonderful deaths.

How I live is more important to me than how I will physically die, my faith is much more important than the state. I only comply to make others who are afraid comfortable and do not beat those up who do not. I posted a photo in my profile I created prior to this madness called memento mori not going to keep there.

Michael, much respect to you, your content and how you write. Thank you too for an intelligent reply. Yes the nursing home situation is a nightmare. I hear friends frustrated and frightened when they get the nursing home notification that COVID is present. They can't go see their parent and it's spreading fast inside. I hope all turns well for you and thank you for the nice reply.

Not entirely sure that image above is her.

It's a stock photo from StockPhotoSecrets

The United Kingdom is right, the holes in the mask are 400 times larger than the virus, everyone needs to lock up in their basement.

Quote from The Atlantic HAH HAH!
"The raw figures are grim. Britain has the worst overall COVID-19 death toll in Europe, with more than 46,000 dead according to official figures, while also suffering the Continent’s second-worst “excess death” tally per capita, more than double that in France and eight times higher than Germany’s. It did not protect its oldest and most vulnerable, who died in nursing homes in appalling numbers. It allowed the disease to spread throughout the country rather than isolating it in one area. It failed to close its borders in good time, abandoned contact tracing too early, set targets that were missed, designed government programs that didn’t work, and somehow contrived to let the three most senior figures overseeing its pandemic response, including the prime minister, catch the very virus they were fighting. Now it faces the worst recession of any developed country, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and is once again taking a gamble by easing its lockdown at a relatively early stage."

If they only wore masks RIGHT!

Sending Covid infected patients to nursing homes was the biggest mistake ever just look at NY and Como stupidity.

Stupid is as Stupid does.

“The best defense we currently have against this virus are the important mitigation efforts of wearing a mask, washing your hands, social distancing and being careful about crowds.
Robert Redfield Director of the CDC
If you don't mind, I think I'll take his word for it over yours Barry.

There's some truth in that paragraph, particularly about the failure to react in the first instance. Our prime minister skipped the Cobra meetings that warned about the virus in the first few months of the year. The Italians were screaming at us to take it seriously, but whilst their hospitals were overflowing, we were still allowing large sports gatherings and concerts. The isolate and eradicate phase lasted about two days before it dawned on the government that this boat had long sailed. Contract tracing took months and months to come into effect, at great expense.

However, I don't think anyone ever intentionally allowed infected patients into nursing homes - I think it was already widely prevalent when first identified. Recession forecasts are speculative and never accurate. It's obviously not been great for the economy but it hasn't taken a complete dive just yet.

Yes, masks do help. There's plenty of evidence around now that shows the correlation. They're not 100% effective but there help enough to reduce transmission rates significantly.

I also agree that the lockdown easing is overcomplicated and ineffective. Unfortunately, I think there's still going to be many more deaths here that could be avoided. We keep throwing more fuel on the burning embers.

Barry, you really have no understanding on how filtration works. I won't waste my time explaining, look it up. Regards,

browser hiccup - ignore this entry

The fine wasn't for posting a selfie.

I used to live on Jersey's neighboring island Guernsey. They had a span of *months* without a single COVID case there and take their rules seriously. I'm glad Ms. Ingram was fined, and I'm glad her selfie vanity was the tool that helped to bust her.

So by paying the fine the problem is solved?
Punishing someone is only used to fear others, so why has she got to be punished?

This crazyness over covid has to stop, governments are lost there minds by all regulations they call in. It's not normal to keep people inside like in Australia and make concentration camps to lock people up, why are we humans let this happend!? We have to help these people from these psycopats which dictate how to live our lives. The world is from us all not from a small group of rich idiots.

If you sit back and watch what happens you can only agree that this isn't normal and isn't working, our world is beeing distroid by people who wants to make benefit of us.

I know this has nothing to do with photography but if we don't stand up together hand in hand photography as it is or should i already say as it was isn't coming back. Your business is going to be destried because customers jobs are getting lost fast at the moment.

Covid costs some peoples lives which is very sad but we can't stop the world spinning arround. Think further then you see at the moment.
We have to go on, not a global quarantain!

This is why people are dying. Profit over people. Greed is not good

What a bunch of scared individuals that need their government to step in, control their lives, and take their rights. Not even blinking an eye in order to gain a little safety and security.

If you want to continue keeping loved ones in their last golden years from seeing their spouses or family, keep family from being with their kids in the hospital, not be there for the birth of their first grandchild, hurt business, etc, then by all means continue down this road. We may never get our normal back. If safety is the gate back to freedom, it may never come. They may never have a vaccine.

The majority of the people I know who had it only lost taste/smell with no other symptoms. Older ones got flue symptoms. I believe the bad cases (especially in elderly) is mostly from a deficiency in vitamin C and D (Common in elderly). The testimony of a man not able to see his wife in a nursing home.... "I'd rather die than live like this"

Or if people just acted responsibly and thought about others besides themselves we could get this behind us and get back on with our lives.
"The U.S. could get the coronavirus pandemic under control if most Americans wear masks, embrace social distancing and practice good hand hygiene for up to three months, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It’s in our hands, within our grasp,” CDC Director Robert Redfield. “But it is going to require all of us to embrace these mitigation steps. And we’re going to need to do that four, six, eight, 10, 12 weeks and then we will see this outbreak under control.”
At least 90% of Americans need to wear masks, social distance and wash hands regularly.

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