'Large group' of teens gather to abuse shoppers in breach of Covid-19 rules outside north Derbyshire Tesco store

Officers say they received a number of reports last night of youngsters ‘hanging around Tesco, being rude to staff and customers, breaching Covid regulations and being a general nuisance’.

They have also had numerous reports in recent weeks of similar incidents taking place at the supermarket.

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After last night’s gathering, Clay Cross Police Safer Neighbourhood Team said: “On the arrival of our PCSOs and PCs the group of approximately 13 teenagers started to walk away whilst telling officers ‘we don’t have to talk to you’ and ‘you can’t fine us so we aren’t bothered!’.“One of the males was detained and taken home to his parents (who have the responsibility of making sure he isn’t breaching Covid regulations or being a nuisance in public).

"He also has to take responsibility for his own actions.

“Over the weeks we have received numerous calls in relation to anti-social behaviour being caused by a group of teenagers at Tesco.”

Officers say they are aware that many people ‘see this as us being the fun police, we have a job to do’.

“As the Safer Neighbourhood Team, our role is to deal with issues such as this that have a detrimental effect upon our community,” the police team posted on Facebook.

“As a team, we want to make sure that members of the community can go shopping or work without being verbally abused by youths who think they can continue with this behaviour and we won’t do anything about it.”

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