Police British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was fined on Fridayfor taking off his seat belt to record a video for social media from a moving car.

Sunak, 42, has apologized for his misjudgment while recording a message for Instagram on Thursday from the backseat of an official car during a visit to North West England.

Lancashire Police said they saw a video “circulating on social media showing an unbelted passenger in a moving car in Lancashire”. The force said, without mentioning Sunak’s name, that it “sent a 42-year-old man from London a conditional offer of a fixed sentence”.

Failure to use a seat belt is punishable by a fine of up to $620 (£500).. The conditional offer means that the fined person accepts their guilt, but does not have to go to trial. Police did not specify how much Sunak was fined.

In a statement, Sunak’s office said: “Prime Minister fully accepts that it was a mistake and apologised. Obviously he will respect the fixed penalty”.

This is the second time Sunak has been fined during his political career. Last year, when he was head of the Treasury, he was fined £50 for breaking pandemic lockdown rules by briefly attending a party at government offices. He was one of dozens of officials fined in the scandal known as “Gate of Holidays”including then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Sunak took over as prime minister of the United Kingdom in October, pledging “integrity, professionalism and responsibility” after tumultuous years in which Johnson was ousted following various scandals and his successor, Liz Truss, ousted after his policies they destabilized the British economy.

This was the “Partygate” that put Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak in check

In June 2022, the official Sue Gray was commissioned to report on the “Partygate” which put the government of Boris Johnson in check.

In it, he called on the government to take responsibility for what happened and criticized the heavy drinking at these events.

The festivities took place between 20 May 2020 and 16 April 2021, when the UK complied with strict restrictive measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Around that time, some residency members wanted to raise concerns about the behavior they had witnessed in the workplace, but at times felt unable to do so.

Several photographs have been included in the dossier in which the prime minister can be seen taking part in some events, smiling and raising a glass of wine in celebration.

With information from agencies

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