Melbourne millionaire's alleged yacht breach sparks criminal investigation

A criminal investigation has been launched into a Melbourne millionaire and his family after the Queensland government revoked a quarantine exemption for their superyacht Lady Pamela.

Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski confirmed the investigation would focus on Mark Simonds and others on board the yacht, which left Melbourne earlier this month and docked at the Gold Coast on Monday.

The family had originally been granted an exemption by Queensland's chief health officer, Jeannette Young, because she had been told the yacht was being sailed to the state for repairs and would make no stops.

"This exemption was given so they could come up directly from Victoria to Queensland, without stopping along the way, to have the repairs done," Dr Young said.

"Now, they were only meant to have the people necessary to bring the yacht safely up to Queensland."

Mr Simonds, executive director of the ASX-listed Simonds Group, was joined on his 15-day jaunt by his wife, Cheryl, his youngest son Vallence and Hannah Fox, daughter of Linfox executive chairman Peter Fox.

"We will be looking at everyone who was on the boat, obviously," Mr Gollschewski said.

The group also made a number of stops along the NSW coast, police will allege.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was "disgusted" by the allegations.

"I am disgusted about it, and now there is a criminal investigation because it puts the community at risk," she said.

Mr Simonds and his family are now in hotel quarantine after Dr Young revoked the exemption late on Tuesday afternoon.

Ten other yachts had been granted exemptions to enter Queensland, with only crew on board.

Dr Young said Maritime Services and public health authorities boarded the yacht and checked the log and tested the people on board for COVID-19.

The Lady Pamela superyacht docked at Soldiers Point Marina. Credit: Instagram

"Maritime Services notified me that they didn't believe that all the people on the yacht were crew," Dr Young said.

"So yesterday, given the conflicting information about whether they were crew or not crew, where they had been, I just removed the exemption and required all of them to go into hotel quarantine until it can all be worked through.

"I can assure people that everyone's perfectly safe, these people never got off that yacht in Queensland, they were tested on the yacht and now they're all in hotel quarantine."

Queensland Police had been provided with video evidence by Nine's A Current Affair, which appeared to reveal passengers and crew disembarking from the Lady Pamela in Yamba on August 21, which is understood to have been a breach of the conditions of their exemption.

Mr Gollschewski said the criminal investigation was being undertaken in collaboration with NSW Police and Queensland's Maritime Safety.

Superyacht Australia chief executive David Good said many vessels had turned to Queensland to fast-track maintenance during the pandemic global shutdown.

"Vessels brought forward their next two years’ worth of planned maintenance when it became obvious that guests would not be able to travel and enjoy the use of the vessels for some time," he said.

"Since March, Queensland has seen 19 vessels inject $16 million including $9.95 million in refit and maintenance."

- with Cameron Houston and Toby Crockford