Victorian freight train stowaways plead guilty, walk from court
Four men have been released from police custody on good behaviour bonds after sneaking into the state on a freight train from Victoria. But Business SA says authorities should throw the book at them.
Coronavirus News
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- SA scraps NSW border reopening over ‘super spreader’ pub
- Get the most out of your Advertiser digital subscription
South Australia’s peak business group has led a chorus of criticism over the “slap on the wrist” handed to four Victorian freight-train stowaways, who escaped punishment despite breaking strict coronavirus hard-border controls.
The group was in taxpayer-funded quarantine at the city’s Pullman Hotel on Wednesday night awaiting tests results along with a “possible” new infectious patient from Victoria.
Business SA criticised the stowaways escaping fines.
The organisation’s chief executive Martin Haese said authorities should “throw the book” at the stowaways instead of issuing a “slap on the wrist”.
“Absolutely they should be fined and made an example of,” Mr Haese said.
“You can’t have two sets of rules – one for businesses and another for individuals. Our economy is on fragile ground and our hardworking businesses owners deserve better.”
Alexander Moore, 22, Sam Gledhill, 26, Nicholas Batty, 29 and Jacob Todd, 29, all of no fixed address, faced fines of up to $20,000 for breaching COVID-19 restrictions.
Australian Hotels Association SA chief executive Ian Horne said fines helped prevent “diabolic” consequences from any outbreak.
“The potential fines for licensed hotels are steep,” he said.
“But that reflects the expectation that we will all do everything possible to keep customers and the general community safe.”
The Adelaide Magistrates Court heard the group – a student, a New Zealand citizen, an unemployed man and a soil technician – were caught at the city’s freight terminal on a Perth-bound train from Victoria at 9.30am on Tuesday.
Magistrate Jack Fahey expressed surprise he was unable by law to impose a jail term despite the potential danger of people ignoring quarantine.
“There are restrictions to people travelling across borders to prevent the spread of the virus,” he said.
“What you have unwittingly done is that you have breached those restrictions.
“There are potentially serious health consequences to such a breach. There are some in this community who would think that this form of offending should be punishable by a term of imprisonment.
“But I need to make the point clearly that imprisonment is not a penalty that can be applied to this charge. The only penalty according to parliament which accompanies this offence is a maximum fine of $20,000.”
Taking into account their age and lack of criminal records, he declined to impose convictions or fines.
Health Minister Stephen Wade, who refused to discuss any details about the potential new case, flagged discussions with Attorney-General Vickie Chapman to “strengthen the laws”.
Her spokeswoman declined to comment.
The stowaways travelled under police escort by taxi from the city watch-house to their hotel. They will be sent back to Victoria “as soon as possible” if their test results are negative, police said.
If the test is positive they will be treated in South Australia and kept in quarantine.
Gledhill had a previous conviction in NSW for being on train tracks without permission.
Todd, a New Zealand citizen, made a “very foolish decision” when he got on the train with Moore, who is supposed to return to university on Monday to continue a degree in sustainable engineering.
Batty said he had every plan to quarantine once in Adelaide, but Mr Fahey said that claim was doubtful as he had no contacts in South Australia, or money.
Premier Steven Marshall has described the alleged incident on ABC Radio this morning as being “like a movie storyline” but stressed authorities were taking the matter seriously.
Police were notified that four stowaways had been seen on-board an interstate freight train about 9.30am on Tuesday.
The train had departed Melbourne at 10.30pm on Monday night, heading towards Perth.
It stopped at the Adelaide Freight Terminal at Regency Park on Tuesday morning where they were spotted.
Patrols searched the train yard with police dogs Axe and Zac and quickly located the four men.
Mr Marshall told ABC Radio it was an “incredible situation”.
“It’s like a movie storyline from … 20 or 30 years ago; kids (stowed on) a train getting across the border,” he said.
“All I can say is we’ve massively ramped up the surveillance on that border – I think we have more than 260 police officers on that border (and) we now have the ADF supporting our police officers.
“We’re taking this extraordinarily seriously because we just know how dangerous this disease is.”
It comes as Victorian COVID cases rise and three more died in the state.
SA police have reported other instances of Victorians misbehaving during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a truckie who allegedly assaulted and spat at a police officer in the state’s South East in June.
Police spotted a grain truck travelling west on the Wimmera Highway approaching the Hynam checkpoint at speed about 10am on June 4.
When police approached the driver at the checkpoint, he allegedly became abusive and spat on one of the officers, striking him on the hand and uniform.
The 63-year-old Victorian man was arrested and charged with aggravated assault to police, resisting police and using offensive language. He appeared in the Mount Gambier Magistrates Court on June 15.
Earlier this month, two Victorian men were turned around at Bordertown attempting to slip into SA by evading the border check point.
The two young men were found when their van became bogged in Senior, in the state’s South East.
They were given on-the-spot fines of more than $1000 each for breaching border restrictions.
