Gotcha! Six Victorians fined $24,000 after trying to lie their way across border
A group of six Victorians is fined more than $24,000 after lying on border declaration forms while trying to enter Queensland on Saturday.
A Queensland police officer gestures for a motorist to pull over at a checkpoint at Coolangatta on the Queensland-New South Wales border. (Photo: AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
A group of six Victorians has been fined more than $24,000 after lying on border declaration forms while trying to enter Queensland on Saturday.
Police said the group was attempting to cross the border in a minivan and told officers they had been working in New South Wales for the past three weeks.
But evidence uncovered on their phones showed the group had in fact been in a coronavirus hotspot in Victoria in past fortnight.
Each person was fined more than $4,000 and was directed to leave the state immediately.
Police said the group had made an earlier attempt to enter Queensland on July 2 but were turned back.
“Victorians cannot come to Queensland,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said this morning.
“We saw some people trying to get in, in a van, it’s not on.
“And you’ll be caught. And you’ll be fined.
“So those young people now have hefty fines they now have to pay.”
Queensland’s borders remain closed to Victorians and people from interstate who have travelled to Victoria in the past fortnight.
Unless people have an exemption, they will be turned around by police.
Another 177 new coronavirus cases have been recorded in Victoria overnight. Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed on Monday one of the new cases is a returned traveller in hotel quarantine, 25 are connected to known outbreaks and 151 remain under investigation.
The state now has 1612 active cases, with 72 people in hospital and 17 of those in intensive care.
Queensland’s strict quarantine measures have been able to capture another COVID-19 victim before they’ve been able to mingle in public.
Unlike Victoria which is in lockdown after hotel quarantine failed and played a major role in a second wave of coronavirus infections, Queensland’s latest case was a person isolated in a hotel.
“The new case was acquired overseas and is currently in hotel quarantine. They are not considered a risk to the public,” Palaszczuk tweeted.
There were no reported cases on Sunday while on Saturday there were two new cases which were ADF personnel who had been in isolation since returning recently from overseas.
Queensland has four active cases, including an 81-year-old man who has been battling the disease for more than four months.
– ABC / Holly Richardson
