Brisbane real estate agent fined for COVID breach

The principal of a Brisbane real estate agency who unlawfully entered Queensland from a COVID hotspot and did not initially quarantine was found showing a home days later.

The principal of a New Farm real estate agency who unlawfully entered Queensland from a COVID hotspot, after twice being refused entry, and did not initially quarantine was found showing a home days later.

Ivo Janusz Kornel, 39, pleaded guilty in Brisbane Magistrates Court to one count of failing to comply with a COVID public health direction.

The court heard Kornel and his partner, both Queensland residents, attempted to enter the state at the Tugun border checkpoint on August 9 but were refused entry because they didn’t have a valid pass.

Ivo Janusz Kornel was fined $5000 for failing to comply with a COVID-19 direction.

Kornel advised they had been staying in Huonbook, about 30km northwest of Byron Bay, a suburb in the border bubble but police told them they could not enter.

The couple returned 30 minutes later to argue their case but again were refused entry.

Prosecutor Courtney Rantala told the court that on August 15 officers were notified Kornel would be showing homes as a real estate agent on that day.

Police located him outside a New Farm property and questioned him under the Public Health Act, which requires people to answer, however Kornel declined to reveal how he managed to cross the border.

He was transferred to the Pullman Hotel at Brisbane Airport for 14 days quarantine which he completed.

Lawyer Toby Hunt said his client, a qualified life coach who had served in the Australian Defence Force, had been staying at a property in a national park in NSW with limited access to news and updates about new border control measures.

Queensland Police stop and inspect vehicles attempting to enter Queensland at Tugun outside the Gold Coast Airport border crossing. Photo Scott Powick Newscorp

The new border restriction had been introduced in the two days prior to Kornel’s attempt to enter Queensland. At the time all of NSW was a declared hotspot.

Mr Hunt said Kornel’s “judgment was clouded by frustration and a sense of duty” to have his partner returned to Queensland for medical care and for work.

“The defendant accepts he put his own interest before those interests of the wider community,” he told the court.

Mr Hunt said it did not appear Kornel entered the state by “covert means” and wasn’t hiding from police in Queensland.

The risk of Kornel exposing Queenslanders to the risk of community transmission was low with no reported COVID cases in northern NSW around the period he was there, he said.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Janelle Brassington said it was “quite deliberate non compliance”.

“It‘s clear that you thought you presented little risk and you could go about your life … that is the very essence of what the offence is trying to stop people from doing, making their own judgments,” she said.

She accepted Kornel was at relatively low risk of contracting COVID and was an otherwise contributing member of the community.

He was fined $5000, higher than the ticketed amount of $4000, due to his initial non-cooperation with police.

No conviction was recorded.