Sydney man kicked out of Queensland after false border declaration

A Sydney man who jetted into the Gold Coast has had his Christmas holiday cut short after being booted out of the state for falsely declaring that he was a Queenslander.

A Sydney man who jetted into the Gold Coast has had his Christmas holiday cut short after being booted out of the state for falsely declaring that he was a Queenslander.

Gold Coast police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said the Rose Bay man flew into Coolangatta earlier this week.

It comes as Queensland recorded two new COVID-19 cases on Christmas Day, while NSW went into single digits, with seven new cases.

Supt Wheeler said the 37-year-old declared a Queensland address on his border entry pass.

“Police did some further checks on that man and found that he had another border pass in the system that he’d made an application for, outlining a NSW address,” he said.

“The man was initially put into home quarantine and then two days later we were able to establish that he actually came from Rose Bay and was not a Queensland resident.”

Supt Wheeler said the man was hit with a $4003 fine for making a false border declaration and ‘shown the door to the state’.

Supt Wheeler said the man was staying with his parents in Queensland ‘but unfortunately he had no actual right to be in Queensland at this time and he did give false information’.

Up until 4pm on Thursday, 190 vehicles containing 420 people had been turned around at the Coast’s three border checkpoints.

More than 414,000 border passes have been issued, up 35,000 in one day.

Supt Wheeler said traffic was flowing well on the Gold Coast border checkpoints, but longer delays were expected on Boxing Day and into the long weekend.

In stark contrast to earlier in the week when police were abused by some motorists, there has been Christmas cheer on the checkpoints, with officers given gifts of chocolate and even a pavlova by passing drivers.