Man caught sneaking car across border on tow truck, while he walked
A Brisbane man, who drove to Wollongong to rekindle a relationship with a former partner, has been caught re-entering Queensland on foot and trying to have his car towed through a Gold Coast border checkpoint.
Police ran a check after spotting the car on a tow truck and found it had been flagged earlier when they stopped the man at a border checkpoint. Photo: ABC
The 51-year-old was stopped at the M1 border checkpoint on Saturday night and was told by officers that he could not re-enter the state unless he arrived by air and then spent 14 days in hotel quarantine.
Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said the man had driven from Wollongong, south of Sydney.
“He’s come directly from a hotspot,” he said. “He was warned that if he attempted to gain entry from another checkpoint he would be identified and he would be fined.”
Police said the man called a tow truck company which transported his vehicle into Queensland on Saturday via the Griffith Street checkpoint at Coolangatta.
“One of our vigilant and diligent police officers saw the vehicle and just decided to do a registration check on it and of course we had flagged that vehicle,” Chief Superintendent Wheeler said.
“The vehicle was dropped off to an address at Tugun and that person was located there, so he had walked across the border. “He told police he’d gone down there to rekindle a relationship and he’s blatantly breached the Chief Health Officer’s direction.”
The man was handed a $4,003 infringement notice and ordered into 14-day mandatory hotel quarantine at a cost of $2,800.
Queensland Police said the tow truck company that transported the man’s vehicle had done nothing wrong.
Police aware
Chief Superintendent Wheeler said police were aware that someone may try and use a tow truck to get their vehicle through a checkpoint.
“It’s not something we haven’t thought of before, we have done checks before,” he said.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time we have identified the vehicle and been able to match it up with the driver.
“I’m not surprised really at anything, but it doesn’t really help the cause when people are blatantly breaching the Chief Health officer’s directions.”
The latest border infringement comes one week after 43-year-old Brisbane man was caught trying to re-enter Queensland after driving to Tweed Heads to buy a fishing rod.
The man was handed a $4,003 infringement notice and will be forced to spend 14 days in quarantine on his return to Queensland.
– ABC / Tom Forbes and Nicole Dyer
