British police fined Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday for failing to wear a seatbelt while filming a social media video in a moving car.
“We have today issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed punishment,” Lancashire Police stated on Twitter, without naming Sunak.
Sunak can avoid a court hearing by paying a fine under a fixed penalty.
According to the BBC, the fine for not wearing a seat belt as a car passenger is £100 ($124). Sunak might be fined £500 if the case went to court.
Downing Street said in a statement that Sunak “fully accepts this was a mistake and has apologised”.
“He will, of course, comply with the fixed penalty,” it said.
The beltless Conservative leader chats from the back seat of a moving car on his proposals for promoting growth during a trip to Lancashire in England’s north in Thursday’s film, produced for distribution on Sunak’s social media channels.
Sunak apologised for an “error of judgement” soon after the video came out on Thursday, according to Downing Street, and it has been removed from Instagram.
Sunak’s transportation habits were already a talking point in the United Kingdom.
His political rivals have taken aim at his use of a private jet to make multiple short flights in recent days.
This is not the first time Sunak has been slapped with a police fine.
He was fined while serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer for attending a Downing Street party in June 2020 that violated the government’s rules on social distancing.
