Police fine woman caught trying to flee Westin Hotel quarantine via fire escape

A woman police said was busted trying to escape from hotel quarantine Saturday night has been slapped with a huge fine.

A 29-year-old woman has been slapped with a more than $1300 fine for trying to escape a quarantine hotel.

Queensland Police Service Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said the woman was caught in the fire escape of the Westin Hotel on May Street in Brisbane at 9.07pm Saturday.

“They’re not allowed out of their rooms (while in quarantine),” he said.

“People need to understand they’ve got to do their hotel quarantine period until they’re released by Queensland Health.

“If they don’t stay in their hotel room they put other people at risk if they turn out to be positive.”

Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski, 62, said the woman was taken back to her room and issued a $1378 penalty infringement notice.

He said he did not know where the woman was from, how long she had been in quarantine for or where she travelled from.

Police have fined a 29-year-old woman who allegedly tried to leave hotel quarantine in Brisbane’s Westin Hotel on Mary Street Saturday night. The woman was not associated with the room pictured in this photo, taken at the Westin in June, or any of the other photos accompanying this story. Picture: Liam Kidston

Under the Covid health directions, police are stationed at the hotels being used for quarantining purposes.

The hotels also have CCTV, which is also monitored.

Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said a man at the Amore Hotel also tried to leave before his quarantine was completed last week, but he did not have details available.

It is not the first time since the coronavirus pandemic started that some people have tried to leave their mandatory 14 days of quarantine before it was completed.

In the last few weeks alone, a 39-year-old Queensland man allegedly climbed out of a WA hotel room after tying bedsheets together and two people in quarantine in Cairns have been caught.

Police said the man created a makeshift rope by tying sheets together and climbed down from the fifth floor of a hotel in the suburb of Rivervale about 12.45am July 20.

A Queensland man allegedly used bed sheets as a rope to escape hotel quarantine in WA recently. Picture: WA Police Force

Police said they found him about eight hours late on Beaufort Street in Mt Lawley.

The man was charged with failing to comply with a direction and providing false or misleading information.

On July 2, Dalassa Rittia Diane Pau, 22, was placed into quarantine at the Pacific Hotel at 43 The Esplanade, Cairns after returning from Sydney before police realised on July 5 that she was missing from her fourth floor room.

She was found at a Cairns unit, returned to the hotel and also slapped with a $2500 fine after pleading guilty to failing to comply with a Covid-19 public health direction, unregulated high risk activities and wilful damage in the Cairns Magistrates Court on July 6.

Outside the court on July 6, Far North Acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Hodgman said it was the “second time in a couple of weeks where people have put their lives at risk to come out of the Pacific Hotel.”

A 29-year-old Victorian man sustained leg injuries while trying to escape hotel quarantine after he plunged from the balcony of a hotel in Cairns about 11am on June 18.

The Queensland border crossing on Numinbah Road on Saturday. Picture: Liana Walker

Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski also said out of 895 passenger arrivals into Queensland airports on Saturday 276 people went into hotel quarantine while four people were denied entry into the state.

“They either did not have an exemption or were not a returning Queenslander,” he said.

Under the Covid health directions, anyone entering Queensland must have one of three different border passes.

Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said the number of truck drivers with the correct Freight and Logistics (or F-Pass) pass had increased in a week.

“The numbers were pretty good today,” he said.

“Last week we had 36 per cent of truck drivers non-compliant, or they didn’t have the right passes.

“Yesterday 315 yesterday crossed over and only six didn’t have the right paperwork.

“That’s only two per cent.”