Three face court after Adelaide medi-hotel raid, three others arrested over border checkpoint breaches
Six people have been arrested – including a Victorian grandmother – over the past two days at SA medi-hotels and the border over alleged Covid breaches.
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Three people have been arrested in less than 12 hours at border checkpoints near Victoria, including a truck driver who allegedly spat at one officer and pushed another.
And three other people have faced court over border breaches after being arrested when police stormed a medi-hotel in the city on Thursday with bolt cutters and a battering ram.
The truck driver was stopped about 8.45pm on Thursday at Wolseley, near the Victoria - South Australia border, when he allegedly became aggressive.
The Victorian man, 56, was arrested and charged with two counts of assaulting an emergency worker, and resisting arrest.
He did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody to reappear in court on Monday.
Hours later, two people were arrested and another man fined after they allegedly evaded police by driving through the border checkpoint.
A car and a truck drove through the Dukes Highway border checkpoint and failed to stop about 4.30am on Friday.
The vehicles came to a stop a short time later.
One man from Victoria, 29, who had approval to move to SA, was fined for failing to comply with a direction under the Emergency Management Act.
The truck was driven by Victorian man Adam McArthur, 44. He and his passenger, Julia Bryant, 49, also from Victoria, were arrested and taken to the City Watch House where they were charged with failing to comply with a direction under the Emergency Management Act. They were refused bail in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday.
It comes after police armed with bolt cutters arrested three people at the Pullman medi-hotel after they allegedly lied to border patrols on Wednesday night.
One of the trio, a grandmother of three who lied to SA border patrols about illegally entering from a locked-out state has apologised for her “stupid mistake”.
Victorian resident Pauline Briggs’ offending came to an end on Thursday afternoon when SA Police raided the Pullman medi-hotel in Adelaide’s CBD and arrested her and two other people from the Hindmarsh Square facility.
Police were seen entering the building with a battering ram and bolt cutters and were later seen wearing gas masks while leaving the hotel with three people in handcuffs.
Before the arrests, it was alleged that police stopped a car on a dirt road near Loxton, in the state’s northeastern Riverland region, at about 5.30pm yesterday where one of the passengers – Ms Briggs’ partner, Aaron Peters, 34, from NSW – allegedly admitted to having been in a restricted area and was arrested.
He was charged with breaching the Emergency Management Act and pleaded guilty to the charge in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday. He was sentenced to 18 days’ imprisonment.
According to SA Police, Ms Briggs, Tammy Bustard, 31 from NSW, and Colby Higgins, 32 from NSW, who were also in the vehicle, gave different accounts of where they had been in the past 24 hours.
The three were placed into the Pullman medi-hotel while officers investigated their movements, where they were later arrested.
They were each charged with breaching the Emergency Management Act.
After being refused police bail, they all appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday via video link from the Covid-19 suite in the Adelaide City Watch House.
Ms Briggs pleaded guilty to the offence and apologised for her “stupid mistake”.
She told the court she lied because she was “scared of what would happen” and didn’t want to get in trouble.
“I’m fully aware what I did was wrong and I’m sorry,” Ms Briggs said.
“I wasn’t sure about the travellers exemption … but it was a stupid mistake.”
The court heard Ms Briggs lied to police by saying she was a returning South Australian resident and provided officers with two different addresses – one being her mother’s and the other her brother’s.
According to the police prosecutor, the unvaccinated woman was seen in a Victorian town just three hours before the vehicle was pulled over.
“She lied to authorities and if this wasn’t detected, it could have put the public to further risk,” he said.
The court heard the woman was tested while in the Pullman Hotel and returned a negative result.
Magistrate Yoong Fee Chin sentenced Ms Briggs to three months’ imprisonment but partially suspended it so she only needs to spend one month behind bars.
“I accept she is sorry and contrite for her actions,” he said.
“This is serious offending because it has the potential to bring about a high level of social disorder and can create a situation where authorities can bring about lockdowns.”
Neither Ms Bustard nor Mr Higgins applied for bail and were remanded in custody to appear in the Berri Magistrates Court later this month.
Officers carrying yellow bags left the hotel after the trio was arrested.
It is not yet clear whether the arresting officers will have to quarantine after attending the incident, pending Covid-19 testing results.
The earlier incident saw a Victorian man, 42, arrested over an alleged Covid breach and his daughter, 10, who was staying with him, was separated from him.
He faced court on Wednesday, which heard he had a mental health episode brought on by SA Health’s changes to his quarantine.
He was taken into custody for two weeks.
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