UK visitor Zara Holland being escorted into District D Magistrate’s Court by member of legal team Harry Husbands yesterday.
English visitor Zara Holland will have to turn out her pockets to the tune of $12 000 within seven days or spend nine months under the hospitality of Her Majesty Prisons Dodds. This was the sentence handed down by Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes as the former Miss Great Britain appeared in the District D Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Holland, who came to local notoriety after breaching COVID-19 quarantine protocols and subsequently attempting to flee the country with her partner Elliot Love, walked into the Cane Garden court at 10:45 accompanied by her attorney Harry Husbands after waiting in the parking lot for over an hour. Once on the inside, and read her charge which was for
contravening COVID-19 Directive 4, a visibly-shaken Holland entered a guilty plea.
Her entire legal team, which was led by Queen’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim and also included Kaviar Callender, sought to paint a picture of the defendant which was different to what was held as public opinion.
Revealing that she did charity work in the United Kingdom and had a ‘great deal of respect’ for Barbados, Pilgrim said that she had since seen the error of her ways and made a petition for a fine in the region of $6000 to $12,000.
Taking into consideration anxiety caused by a medical condition for which documentation was provided, Chief Magistrate Weekes said that he could understand why such a rash decision could have been made in the moment, but chided Holland for the severity of her infraction.
Making it clear that the law was absolute and governed all of the court’s judgments, Weekes said that the right message needed to be sent to all. Calling what Holland did ‘a grave breach’, Weekes took into consideration the fact that she presented herself to the police when summoned and cooperated with investigations.
Drawing reference to other recent cases where other persons also breached quarantine, Weekes was resolute in his decision saying that no favours were done and his judgement always remained fair and balanced. Efforts to pay the fine immediately were unsuccessful and as a result, Holland avoided custody by securing a $20,000 surety. However, failure to pay her fine in seven days will see a warrant issued to Interpol for her arrest.
On December 29th, Holland and Love, who were under quarantine at Sugar Bay Hotel pending results, attempted to leave the island after Love’s tests returned positive. Holland, who was stripped of her Miss Great Britain title due to a sex scandal during her time on reality show Love Island, returned two negative results while Love remains in isolation at the Harrison’s Point facility.