Victorian who snuck into SA was trying to get in to start a new job, court hears

Two alleged border breachers – one who allegedly sped through a checkpoint with blacked out numberplates while high on meth – have appeared in court.

• All travellers from Victoria banned, including South Australians
• Adelaide men busted for border breaches after police pursuit

A Victorian man who allegedly breached border restrictions near Renmark on Friday was trying to get into South Australia to start a new job, a court has heard.

Shannon Muscat, 39, was located by a patrol about 4.45pm on Friday sleeping in his car parked near the cemetery at Renmark West. Police checks revealed he has been refused entry into South Australia at about 2.30am the same day at the Yamba checkpoint.

When located in Renmark West he was arrested and charged with failing to comply with COVID-19 directions.

He was refused police bail and taken to the Adelaide City Watch House.

Appearing in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday, defence lawyer Vanessa Cream, for Muscat, said he was entering SA to start a new job on Sunday.

Police prosecutors said the acts were a clear flouting of border restrictions. Magistrate Simon James Smart deemed Muscat unworthy of bail given his risk of reoffending.

“What concerns me I suppose is that … despite being told and refused (entry to SA), he decided to anyway,” Mr Smart said. “It shows a disinclination to abide by the rules.”

He will reappear in Berri Magistrates Court in August.

Meanwhile, a man who allegedly sped through a border checkpoint with blacked out numberplaters on the same day at Oodla Wirra has been refused bail.

Benjamin Michael Priori, 30, of Elizabeth Downs, faced Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday charged with reckless driving and obscuring a number plate, among other offences.

Priori was spotted at the Oodla Wirra checkpoint driving on the wrong side of the Barrier Highway on Friday night.

Police followed the vehicle and found it abandoned in bushes off a dirt road a short time later. He was found in nearby bushes.

The driver submitted to a drug test where he provided a positive result for methamphetamine, police said.

Police say the man was a non-essential traveller who returned to SA from NSW and was meant to be in quarantine at Elizabeth Park.

Police prosecutors said Priori sped through the checkpoint at 80km/h in a 25km/h zone. He was refused bail due to previous offences committed while on bail.

From midnight Tuesday, a person will be eligible for cross-border community status only if they live within 40km of the Vic and SA border, rather than 50km. People from Portland are no long able to enter SA.

Earlier in the week, three Victorians were arrested in Adelaide after claiming they needed to cross the border for emergency medical treatment.

Two were fined by the courts and then sent back to Victoria.

In an earlier incident three men were arrested and placed on good behaviour bonds after stowing away on a train from Victoria into Adelaide.

At the time the magistrate raised concerns about the inability of the courts to impose prison time for the offence of failing to comply with a COVID-19 direction.

New laws have since gone before parliament to increase the maximum penalty from a fine alone to two years in prison.