A secret investigation by NT Police earlier this year resulted in former chief minister Michael Gunner dodging a $5,000 fine and instead being issued a warning for breaching the CHO’s directions, after a photo of him embracing an elderly woman without a mask was posted on social media, government documents show.

Mr Gunner had posted a photo of himself and then-Labor backbencher Mark Monaghan to his Facebook page on March 4, with their arms around Norma Fong Lim, an elderly woman and the matriarch of the Fong Lim family, with both men not wearing masks in contravention of the mask mandate in effect at the time.

Ms Fong Lim would have been considered vulnerable under NT Health directions and data indicate she would be in a high-risk category if she had contracted COVID-19.

The incident attracted controversy at the time, with “a large number of people” filing complaints with police and raising issues of double standards, as some Territorians had faced fines of more than $5,000 for breaching similar CHO directions. However, the investigation and its outcome was never publicly disclosed.

One of the complainants sent a complaint to the Ombudsman’s office after the NT Police refused to say whether they had investigated the breach.

A letter from the Ombudsman’s office, obtained by the NT Independent, claimed that the matter was investigated.

“The incident … was investigated by Operation Crown who were attached to the COVID-19 Emergency Operation Centre,” a letter signed by Ombudsman senior investigator Cameron Mitchell said.

“As a result of the investigation, two of the three alleged offenders were issued with a caution for fail to comply with the CHO directions for mask wearing, the other person was not found to be criminally responsible due to them suffering from a medical condition.”

It is unclear why Mr Gunner, who had been the face of the pandemic in the NT, and who had publicly ordered Territorians to wear masks for months had only been given a “caution” and not a fine, despite Mr Mitchell’s statement implying that he was “criminally responsible” for the breach.

In contrast, five months earlier, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was fined by Victoria Police for breaching his state’s mask mandate for walking across a carpark without a mask.

Mr Andrews said at the time that he expected police to investigate his breach and if they had chosen not to fine him, he would “donate the same value to a charity working to support people in this pandemic because whilst this was an oversight, oversights matter – everyone needs to follow the rules and I am sorry it occurred”.

Mr Gunner made no such comments and never publicly revealed that he had been issued with the “caution” by police for breaching the mask mandate.

The Ombudsman’s office said their review of police procedures in investigating the then-chief minister determined that police had taken the “education first approach” in dealing with Mr Gunner and Mr Monaghan.

Mr Gunner and Mr Monaghan breaching the CHO’s mask mandate.

“Given the nature of the incident at the time, the actions of police to provide cautions to the offenders is in line with the ‘education first approach’ of mask wearing adopted by the NT Police and the CHO throughout the entire pandemic response,” Mr Mitchell wrote.

Mr Gunner was educating Territorians about the spread of COVID-19 and imploring them to wear masks through social media posts and near-daily press conferences at the time of his infringement, so it remains unclear why he was given the “education first approach”.

Two days before his and Mr Monaghan’s breach, Mr Gunner said at a press conference that Territorians had made “sacrifices” for the greater good and that while the peak of cases was on a downward trajectory, the mask mandate would remain for five more days.

“Those sacrifices, especially the wearing of masks, has made sure we could stay in control even while the virus spread rapidly,” he said on March 2, adding that the indoor mask mandate would end on March 7.

He also said that while the indoor mask mandate would lift, it was “strongly recommended” Territorians continue to wear a mask if distancing could not be achieved. His breach occurred before the mandate was lifted.