GMP raid Manchester uni halls issuing multiple £800 fines to students in common room

Police have handed out multiple £800 fines to students in Fallowfield for allegedly holding a ‘large gathering’ in their common room. 

Officers entered halls of residence twice over the weekend in south Manchester to question students over their socialising. 

Furious parents and students have accused Greater Manchester Police of heavy-handed tactics facilitated by the University of Manchester, the MEN reveals. 

Students say police raided Owens Park halls of residence at around 11pm on Friday and 2:30am on Sunday over a potential breach of lockdown rules.

Under coronavirus law, police do not have power of entry and need a warrant to enter and search premises.

The exception to this rule is if they have ‘reasonable grounds to suspect that a person within is potentially infectious, and they need to direct or remove the person for screening and assessment’.

However, under the Manchester University’s student accommodation contracts, the uni and ‘anyone authorised’ by staff has the right to enter without prior notice.

GMP insist students who were fined showed ‘blatant disregard’ to the rules and that their ‘proactive patrols’ inside the accommodation were agreed with the uni in advance.  

One student spoke to the MEN, saying that a number of her flatmates were issued £800 fines each on Friday because more than 15 people from the same block were in the common room.

She said: “There’s four floors with up to fourteen people on each one. Each floor is your household and at the start of the year the common room was locked.

“We asked for it to be unlocked because otherwise there’s nowhere else for us to sit other than our rooms. I think when police came there was about 15 people in the common room, but they were all from our block.

“The way the building is laid out makes it impossible not to mix between floors. People are always walking between floors. And when we go to the canteen we’re all put in there together.”

She continued: “They brought us into the common room and were getting people from other floors, there must have been 25 people in the end.

“We weren’t able to social distance so it seemed to really defeat the point. They said we were all getting an £800 for being part of a large gathering.

“People were weeping.”

“It’s stupid – they’re fining us for being in a student common room. This whole accommodation doesn’t fit the regulations.

“We’re all mingled together all the time, we can’t stop that, we share everything. People were really upset.”

Students were advised not to return to campus this term unless their course required face-to-face teaching like medicine, due to the latest national lockdown. One student estimated that around 70% of students did return.

The University of Manchester outlined its policy saying: “If you are living in a flat then this is considered to be a household. If you are living in halls that are corridor based then we have identified rooms (maximum of 15) that will be designated as a household and you will be required to ensure that you use the facilities which are for your household only.

“Any government guidance for households will apply in all cases.”

Students say they feel the issue did not require the involvement of the police.

One student said: “We got an email last week reminding us about parties. But nothing about the household rules and using the common room. It’s so disproportionate the force they applied.

“Today they knocked on my bedroom door at 2 in the morning when I was asleep. They said it was just to chase up some details about the night before.

“It’s awful, who’s letting them do this? I haven’t seen a Uni security guard this whole time, it’s just hordes of police.

“They turn up in a van with 10 to 15 of them and storm in at once and scare everyone to death. Surely campus security could have handled this?”

Another student added: “People were traumatised by it, we were literally just having dinner with friends.

“The police just wouldn’t understand. They said we shouldn’t be at uni in the first place and that we weren’t supposed to use the common rooms.

“It’s like walking into someone’s house, it wouldn’t happen in a normal household outside uni. It’s just cruel.

“Everyone is just terrified now and no one is leaving their rooms – we don’t know when police might come back.”