Two men to front court over allegedly lying about being in Sydney

Two men to front court over allegedly lying about being in Sydney

by | Jul 23, 2020 | Cops, COVID-19, News | 0 comments

Two men have been forced into mandatory supervised quarantine in Howard Springs and will front court after police said they flew into, and had been mingling with, the Nhulunbuy community after they lied about not having been in Sydney in the previous two weeks.

Commander Matt Hollamby said the 25-year-old and 54-year-old men arrived in the Territory on Tuesday, on a flight from the Australian Capital Territory via Queensland and travelled to Nhulunbuy.

He said the next day, the two men were questioned by police who found inconsistencies in their statements and later found the men had been to Sydney in the previous 14 days.

Comm Hollamby did not say why they questioned the men the next day, or where the men had spent their time while in Nhulunbuy, nor did he say what part of Sydney the men had been in or for how long.

The NT Government has declared Sydney a hotspot and all travellers from there must spend two weeks in mandatory quarantine at their own expense.

He said both men were taken into police custody in Nhulunbuy, placed in quarantine and were flown to the Howard Springs quarantine camp in a police plane.

Police said they will have to front court on August 10 for failing to abide by the chief health officer’s directions under the Public and Environmental Health Act and for making a false declaration under the criminal code.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s border protection strategy has been questioned following his pronouncements that he will rely on the honesty of travellers who come to the Territory to say whether they have been in an infected area.

“This is a trust issue, but I say to the person whose coming to our border, if you lie and don’t want to spend 14 days in a hotel room, then you face three years in a prison cell,” Mr Gunner told ABC Radio on July 6.

“It’s a statutory declaration so I would think very carefully about lying. First of all, don’t come, but if you do come, tell the truth.”

Meanwhile, Comm Hollamby said a 50-year-old man, who arrived from Western Australia but was in Victoria in the two weeks before he arrived in the NT, has been fined for breaking quarantine by leaving his rural area house. Police did not specify what places the man went to after be broke quarantine. The man must have entered the Territory before July 17 and was not forced into supervised quarantine.

The fine for breaking mandatory quarantine is $5,056 for an individual and $25,280 for a business.

NT Police said there have been 29,395 compliance checks and 144 fines issued to date.

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