A man who said he visited a house to buy alcohol despite the Covid-19 lockdown was fined $3,000 yesterday.Treadwell Smith, 33, from Devonshire, pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to a breach of the shelter-in-place regulations by leaving his home and visiting another house.Takiyah Simpson, for the Crown, told the court in an online sitting that the offence was discovered when Smith was arrested in the Elliot Street car park in Pembroke at 1.50pm on Tuesday in connection with an unrelated incident.Smith told police he had left his home to go shopping and had visited the house of a man called Terry to buy alcohol.Ms Simpson asked for Smith to be fined $3,000 for leaving his house in breach of the regulations plus $3,500 to $4,000 for the visit to another home.However, Paul Wilson, the duty defence counsel, said that Smith had thought it was his day to buy groceries and had made a mistake because the surname-based shopping system had changed on Monday.Mr Wilson said: “It’s certainly reasonable, if not understandable, that he made a simple mistake thinking his day for shopping was Tuesday when it was Wednesday.”Magistrate Craig Attridge said the offences were serious because breaches of regulations put the lives of the most vulnerable at risk.He accepted that Smith might have confused his shopping days.Mr Attridge said: “That does not, however, explain him visiting the home of another, which is strictly prohibited.”The magistrate fined Smith $1,500 for leaving his home and $1,500 for the visit to another house.• It is The Royal Gazette’s policy not to allow comments on stories regarding court cases. As we are legally liable for any slanderous or defamatory comments made on our website, this move is for our protection as well as that of our readers.