Zara Holland was ‘intercepted at the airport’ – police in Barbados reveal

Zara Holland was ‘intercepted at the airport’ after fleeing her hotel in Barbados, police today revealed. 

Officers on the Caribbean island found the Love Island star’s £350-a-night hotel room empty when they raided it last Sunday, a police statement revealed. 

Police on the island gave full details of the 25-year-old’s arrest after she tried to leave the country when her boyfriend Elliott Love, 30, tested positive for Covid.

Miss Holland will appear in court on Wednesday where she faces up to a year in prison and an £18,000 fine.

Entitled Breach of Quarantine, the statement says: ‘Police at Hastings Worthing Police Station have warned Zara Holland, 25 years old, a citizen of Great Britain and staying at the Sugar Bay Hotel, Hastings, Christ Church of intended prosecution for the offence of Breaching Quaratine.

‘Facts. The accused arrived on the island on Sunday, December 27th, 202, and was tested for the Coronavirus on December 28th, 2020, and reportedly instructed to remain at the Sugar Bay Hotel, Hastings, Christ Church untilt the results were known. On Tuesday December 29th 2020 Personnel from the COVID-19 Unit visited the hotel and discovered that Zara Holland had left without permission.

‘She was intercepted at Grantley Adams International Airport attempting to leave the island.

‘On Saturday January 02, 2021, Zara Holland presented herself to Hastings Worthing Police Station accompanied by an Attorney at law, she was served with a summons in respect of the mentioned offence and is expected to appear at the District ‘A’ Magistrates Court on Wednesday 06th 2021.’  

The couple were initially placed in isolation at a specialist Covid-19 quarantine facility in northern Barbados but Miss Holland has since been released after testing negative for a second time for the virus and is now confined to her hotel room.

When Mr Love tested positive for Covid on arrival last Sunday, the couple were given red wristbands and told to remain in their room at the £300-a-night Sugar Bay Hotel until they were taken to a quarantine centre on the north of the island.

Instead, they booked a British Airways flight, cut off their wristbands and took a taxi to the airport where, according to a local source, their names raised some red flags with airport officials because of their short turnaround time in the country. Police were then alerted.

They were arrested and taken to St Lucys District Hospital, a basic unit where tourists quarantine until they can provide two negative tests. Mr Love remains at the hospital.

When Zara, from North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, was released, she returned to the Sugar Bay Hotel where she had been staying but was asked to leave by the manager and relocated to the Hilton.

‘She went back to the Sugar Bay hotel after she was released from quarantine but the manager told her she had to leave because she had brought shame on the hotel by breaching the Covid-19 protocol,’ added the source.

On Saturday she issued a grovelling apology to the islands government and its furious residents, claiming the couples actions were the result of a massive mix-up and misunderstanding. 

She told island newspaper Barbados Today: ‘I want to apologise to the entire country of Barbados for what has been a massive mix-up and misunderstanding. I would never do anything to jeopardise an entire nation that I have nothing but love and respect for. 

It comes as a petition calling for the the Love Island star and her partner to be jailed was reached more than 1,000 people on Change.org today.

The petition read: ‘They broke the law, but also broke the trust of the wonderfully open, kind and welcoming people of Barbados. They acted with a level of selfishness and entitlement that beggars belief. 

‘They undermined the huge amount of work that had been done by the government and people of Barbados to suppress community transmission and the didn’t just risk the livelihoods of Bajans, the risked their lives.’

In Barbados this week, the Daily Nation reported: ‘The couple, who have been dating for four years, arrived here last Sunday aboard a Virgin Atlantic flight and were to be quarantining in a Christ Church hotel. Visitors have to be cleared after two mandatory tests, which usually take about three days.

‘However, after Ministry of Health officials informed them that one of them had tested positive, the couple apparently removed their red wristbands, boarded a taxi to Grantley Adams International Aiport and attempted to book a flight back to the United Kingdom aboard British Airways.

‘Sources said while the male is in isolation until he recovers from the virus, the 25-year-old model who won a major beauty contest in the UK, was under quarantine until tests prove that she did not have the virus. However, if she turns out to be positive, she too will be isolated.’

A tourist was jailed for six months earlier this week for breaching Barbados’ strict Covid-19 protocols, even though he had only popped out for a drink.

Dean George Scott, 49, from Jamaica, admitted leaving quarantine to ‘buy Fanta’ and other snacks after arriving on the holiday island at the beginning of December, when he appeared in court.

Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes said the sentence served as a ‘clear warning’ to others.

He said: ‘I got to send a message to you and to all the other people that this cannot be tolerated. We have made too much gain, so you have to do six months. Walking out of quarantine no man, this cannot be allowed.’