Covidiots: Gold Coasters in hot water for defying health orders
Whether a former bikie or a billionaire business tycoon, they all have one thing in common - they're the Covidiots who defied public health orders. SEE THE FULL LIST
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WHETHER it be a white lie on a border declaration pass to avoid hotel quarantine or a mad dash to cross closed borders by way of luxury yacht.
The list of Covidiots who have broken Queensland’s quarantine, border, public health or lockdown laws is as varied as it is long.
The Bulletin has rounded up some of the most notable cases of people fined on the Gold Coast for breaching public health orders.
MORE NEWS: INFECTED RIDESHARE DRIVER FAILED TO CHECK IN, ACCUSED OF BORDER HOPPING
MEL WATERHOUSE
The flight attendant at the centre of last month’s Covid scare caused serious concern among Queensland health officials, who feared an outbreak of the Delta variant was imminent.
Mel Waterhouse, otherwise known as Malynda Gray, 36, breached border directions alongside Sydney man George Thompson in July, after the pair moved about the southeast while infected with the highly-infectious strain of Covid-19.
Ms Waterhouse did not know she was infected at first and upon displaying symptoms was tested, while Mr Thompson did not inform Queensland authorities of his positive result after he was notified by NSW Health.
Ms Waterhouse, who works as a Qantaslink flight attendant and once dated cop killer Rick Maddison, tested positive for the highly contagious strain on July 22.
During that week she visited various venues, including stops at Tugun and Dreamworld at Coomera, despite initially telling health authorities she had stayed at home.
Queensland Health officials later determined Ms Waterhouse had contracted the virus from Mr Thompson, who she picked up from Ballina and travelled with across the border on July 14.
She was fined $4000 for failing to comply with a border direction after driving Covid-positive Mr Thompson into Queensland, which resulted in her contracting the virus.
She was not charged.
GEORGE THOMPSON
The Sydney man who joined flight attendant Mel Waterhouse on a trip around southeast Queensland was fined almost $10,000 for flouting several Covid-19 restrictions.
Mr Thompson, 26, flew from Sydney to Ballina airport last month despite being deemed a close contact of a confirmed case by NSW Health – and while the city was in strict lockdown.
At the time, the man had been given a negative test result, but was later told the result was wrong.
Mr Thomspon travelled by car with Ms Waterhouse from Ballina into Queensland before stopping at Tugun and Brisbane.
The pair spent a number of days in southeast Queensland where they provided false check-in information, before Ms Gray tested positive to Covid-19.
After failing to co-operate with police, the woman eventually disclosed how she had contracted the virus.
Thompson was placed into hotel quarantine, where police say he repeatedly opened the door to his room and verbally abused staff. As a result, he was fined almost $10,000.
JEROMY YOUNG
The owner of a superyacht who fled Covid-ravaged Sydney and then went to a rugby Test in Brisbane was revealed to be the director of leading audio visual company.
Jeromy Young was one of the four people on-board the 34-metre Dreamtime superyacht which last month arrived on the Gold Coast direct from Sydney’s escalating Covid crisis.
All four travellers were fined more than $4000 and dragged into hotel quarantine, but not before attending the rugby Test between the Wallabies and France at Suncorp Stadium with more than 17,000 other spectators.
The movements of the group found to have been on-board the yacht – which costs almost $20,000 a day to charter – outraged Queensland Health and police officials, who said it potentially placed thousands of Queenslanders at risk.
The men filled in border declarations stating they had not been in a Covid hot spot, but were approached by officers from Queensland Water Police and Maritime Safety Queensland several days later. All of the group returned negative results to Covid tests.
SHANE BOWDEN
The notorious bikie, allegedly murdered in a gang-related shooting at his Gold Coast home last year, had been the subject of a border breach investigation in the lead-up to his death.
Shane Bowden, 47, was believed to have tested positive to coronavirus before flying from Victoria to Brisbane in August 2020 while still infectious.
At the time, advice filtered up to Queensland from Victoria that Mr Bowden had tested positive to the virus while down south and that he was meant to be in quarantine.
The former patched member of the Mongols and Finks was intercepted on arrival into Brisbane and taken to the Gold Coast to undergo hotel quarantine under heavy police guard.
It was later determined that he had not been infectious while flying. However Mr Bowden was later charged with giving false and misleading documents under the Public Health Act.
Mr Bowden appeared in Southport Magistrates Court on October 1 – days before his death – where it was determined he was diagnosed in early August while in hospital in Melbourne awaiting surgery for a suspected gunshot wound but was cleared by Victorian authorities on August 21.
He was fined $750 after pleading guilty to one count of providing false or misleading documents under the Public Health Act. No conviction was recorded.
GREG NUMA
The skipper of a luxury superyacht at the centre of one of Gold Coast’s first major Covid breaches last year was made an example of by Queensland authorities.
Greg Numa, the captain of the Lady Pamela, copped a hefty fine to the tune of $4003 for breaching the state’s border ban.
The former celebrity manager, 64, was in charge of a 30m yacht carrying Melbourne millionaire Mark Simonds and his family, which docked at Gold Coast City Marina at Coomera in August 2020 after a 15-day voyage.
Mr Simonds and the other six people on board were initially granted exemptions from mandatory hotel quarantine but they were later revoked.
A police investigation was launched and the Simonds party ordered into quarantine at the QT Hotel. A Southport court was told Numa sent multiple emails to maritime authorities lying about disembarking from the ship as it sailed from Victorian waters into Queensland.
Mr Numa pleaded guilty to one count of making a false declaration to an emergency officer. No conviction was recorded.
DIANA LASU, OLIVIA MURANGA, HAJA TIMBO
This Logan trio made national headlines for all the wrong reasons last year after providing false information on their border pass at Brisbane Airport when returning from Victoria.
While the group’s actions were widely condemned by both health officials and the public, some claimed that they had been unfairly publicly shamed for their actions.
Haja Uma Timbo and Diana Lasu, both 21, pleaded guilty in March to failing to declare their visit to a COVID hotspot following a four-night trip to Victoria in July last year.
Brisbane Magistrates Court heard Ms Timbo flew into Brisbane on July 22 and also attended a party during her visit to the southern state. Victoria was declared a COVID hotspot on July 3.
Ms Timbo secured a border pass online, but failed to declare that she had been in a COVID hotspot within the last 14 days – meaning she bypassed mandatory quarantine.
Two of Timbo’s travel companions, including Diana Lasu and Olivia Muranga, later contracted the virus. One of her friends tested positive for COVID on July 22 after returning to Queensland the day before, the court was told.
Charges of one count of fraud and producing false or misleading documents against Ms Timbo were withdrawn by the prosecution in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Janelle Brassington sentenced Ms Timbo and Ms Lasu to 80 hours of community service, saying she lowered the penalty due to the “racist, threatening” messages Timbo was subjected to.
Ms Brassington said she was not referring to legitimate media but messages sent to Timbo by members of the public. A conviction was not recorded.
In January police dropped a fraud charge against Muranga.
Magistrate Sue Ganasan sentenced her to 40 hours of community service in April and also did not record a conviction.
SAMUEL FENUNUTI, EARNEST LOTOMAU, TITHING FAAGASEJAN
In a similar tale, three Logan men were busted after returning to Queensland from Covid-ravaged Melbourne at the height of the pandemic - and hauled in front of a judge as result.
Samuel Tumua Fenunuti, 29, from Slacks Creek, Tithing Keresoma Faagase, 25, from Logan and Earnest Tumano Lotomau, 23, from Waterford, faced Coolangatta Magistrates Court for failing to comply with a public health directive.
The group pleaded guilty after returning to Queensland from Melbourne in August last year, telling the court the men had filled in border applications but had been confused by the escalating crisis in Melbourne, believing their suburbs were outside declared Covid hot spots.
It came after the trio returned to Queensland together from stints working in Melbourne’s wharves and later discovered the whole city was a declared hot spot.
Their efforts to alert authorities and subsequent hotel quarantine proved a saving grace; each let off with good behaviour bonds.
Magistrate Kerry Magee said there was “the absence of an intention to deceive” and agreed the offending was at the lower end of the scale. No convictions were recorded.
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