COVID-19 FINES: Get your story straight son

Yamba driver down $1000 as latest person booked in the Clarence

Police Paddy wagon at Coffs harbour Police Station.Photo: Rob Wright/The Coffs Coast Advocate.

A POOR attempt to get his story straight has ended in a $1000 fine for a Yamba driver who joined a growing list of people caught defying public health orders.

On Sunday night a 35-year-old male was stopped by officers from Coff/Clarence Police on Bent St Yamba at around 8.20pm.

Police allege when speaking with the man, he changed his story several times and was subsequently issued a $1000 penalty infringment notice for breaching coronavirus health directives.

He becomes the sixth person in the Clarence Valley to be issued with a PIN since March 17 and follows several others who have either argued with or lied to police about their reasons for flouting the law.

On Friday morning several young men were fined when they became abusive after being found drinking in public, despite having been given warnings by police just hours before.

On the same day police fined a man carrying a case of beer on a South Grafton street with friends after he too had been given a warning about the Public Health Act.

The total number of PINs issued across the state now stands at 463 with 57 others facing court over defying the directives brought in to slow the spread of coronavirus.

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