Border jumper Jason Paul Kelly hitchhiked from Sydney to Bordertown

A hitchhiking homeless man from Sydney will be forced to isolate behind bars on remand after a police tip off led to his arrest in South Australia.

A wanted man who hitchhiked from Sydney to South Australia will spend the next 14 days isolating in custody on remand.

Jason Paul Kelly travelled from NSW, through Victoria, even making a pit stop in prison before jumping the closed SA border.

The South Australian and Victoria border crossing at Bordertown. Picture: File

The homeless man in his late 30s, pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a direction under the Emergency Management Act sometime between August 11 and 31 in the Mount Gambier Magistrate Court on Tuesday.

The police prosecutor told court Kelly was arrested after a report of a hitchhiker in Bordertown on Monday morning.

“He advised he had hitchhiked from Sydney a few weeks prior to travelling through regional Victoria before entering South Australia,” the prosecutor alleged.

“He had no passes and he wasn’t authorised to enter South Australia from Victoria and is subject to level six restrictions.”

He said Kelly was a wanted man in NSW with five outstanding warrants and had been released from Port Phillip Prison on August 11 after being granted bail by the Collingwood Magistrates Court.

Magistrate Maria Panagiotidis told Kelly he was entitled to apply for bail but he said he could not contest the charge.

“I don’t have an address in South Australia to be bailed to and I don’t feel safe to return to Victoria,” Kelly said.

Magistrate Panagiotidis accepted his guilty plea but said she would only finalise the matter once he had completed quarantine.

“It’s my intention to remand you in custody for 14 days,” she said.

“Due to the breaches alleged my view is that the defendant should remain in custody, and I can have a sentencing hearing in a fortnight’s time.”

Kelly, who was set to undergo his first Covid-19 test on Tuesday afternoon, will be sentenced later this month.