A COVID hoaxer who took photos inside hospitals to falsely claim they are empty has been slapped with an ASBO.
Hannah Dean was previously fined £200 for filming inside hospitals and falsely claimed they are not busy with Covid patients.
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She has claimed the government was lying about the extent of the pandemic, which has killed more than 108,000 Brits.
But the mum-of-two now faces arrest and possible criminal prosecution if she ignores an Asbo-style community protection notice.
Police today confirmed Dean can only visit a hospital in an emergency, for a booked appointment or if she is a dependent of a patient.
Fines of up to £2,500 could be issued by the courts if she is convicted of breaching the notice.
‘DISGRACE’
She is also banned from encouraging others to flout national coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
A senior police officer branded her actions “unacceptable” while a local council leader said her comments were a “disgrace”.
The latest action comes after Dean was handed a £200 fixed penalty notice for travelling to Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, Hants, filming there and posting on Facebook it was “the quietest I have ever seen it”.
She also filmed similar videos of Southampton General Hospital and repeatedly visited St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester, West Sussex.
The videos “caused angst in the community,” Hampshire Police said.
But her Facebook page continued to features pictures and videos from hospitals around the UK, with Dean falsely claiming wards were empty.
In one video outside Queen Alexandra Hospital A&E Dean shared on Monday night, a security guard shouts: “What are you doing here, Hannah?”
She is heard replying: “I’m Hannah’s twin. I’m not Hannah” before insisting she is a journalist.
The security guard is heard calling for the police to be called as he tells her to leave hospital grounds.
In an earlier post Dean wrote: “Hospital is the quietest I have ever seen it! I walked all over the hospital, including A&E!
“I know this is hard to get our heads around, but the government are lying to us! And the reason why they’re lying to us….. is very disturbing!”
But police have now cracked down, with a council leader branding claims Covid doesn’t exist a “disgrace”.
Chief Inspector Jon Carter, from Sussex police, said: “There are a variety of tactics of dealing with this kind of unacceptable behaviour.
“We are working together with Hampshire Constabulary to ensure the best avenues to deter this behaviour from continuing are taken.”
Portsmouth Council Leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said: “It’s an irrefutable fact that there’s huge pressure on the hospital.”
‘DEMEANING’
He added: “To say [Covid] doesn’t exist, it’s a hoax, is so demeaning to the work those people are putting in, the risks they’re putting themselves under and the loss so many families have felt in this city.
“It’s a disgrace and how anybody could do that to other people and show so little for their suffering and their hard work, I don’t know.”
Police said Dean, of Fareham, Hants, was issued with the notice after ignoring a warning she was issued on Sunday.
She tried to film patients and staff at Queen Alexandra Hospital, where 744 people have died with Covid, at around 4.30pm.
A Hampshire and Sussex police investigation has been running since she was issued with the fixed penalty notice.
Some 426 patients were being treated for coronavirus at Queen Alexandra Hospital on January 26, and the intensive care unit is triple its normal size with 47 patients on mechanical ventilation.
A Sussex police spokesman said: “On Sunday, Sussex police issued a community protection warning to a 30-year-old woman from Fareham which prevents her from attending any hospital apart from when she has a prior appointment, is a dependent or there is a medical emergency; and to not encourage, endorse or incite another person to breach Covid restrictions.
“The woman breached the conditions of the community protection warning on the same day of the order being issued and on Monday she was issued with a community protection notice.”
A Hampshire police spokesman added: “The CPN is designed to prevent unreasonable behaviour that is having a negative impact on the local community’s quality of life.”
