Victoria’s recidivist lockdown rule-breakers revealed amid bizarre string of excuses
Thousands of Victorians have been busted for repeatedly defying lockdown laws, with some bizarre excuses offered up to police, including a man who was dropping his girlfriend home and begged officers not to tell his wife.
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More than 2200 Victorians have been busted for multiple COVID-19 breaches.
The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal 1531 have been penalised $1652 twice and the worst of the recidivists has been caught 24 times defying Chief Health Officer directives.
That man – a 27-year-old from Hallam – racked up offence number 24 on Thursday night when he was arrested in the Doveton area.
He was charged with contravening CHO directions under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act and remanded in custody.
Other high-frequency offenders include a person who has been hit with 19 penalties notices, two with 25, two with 15 and three each with 10 and 11.
Bizarre excuses were offered by some other repeat offenders.
One man who has attracted more than a dozen infringements said he was going to buy drugs on one of the occasions he was intercepted.
That man has been caught three times for not wearing a mask but refused the face-covering when offered one by police each of those times.
One man with six fines to his name was caught three times in a fortnight breaking the 8pm to 5am stage four curfew.
He told officers who intercepted him one of those times that he was dropping his girlfriend off at home and asked them not to tell his wife.
A 45-year-old Lalor man who has seven penalty notices was picked up on two consecutive days catching a train from Lalor to Bairnsdale.
A man with eight breaches was twice caught without a mask, on one of those occasions spitting at police and telling them coronavirus was a hoax.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the vast majority of people were co-operating and the “selfish behaviour” of the recidivists was an exception.
The spokeswoman said arrest powers were only used if a person refused to comply with directives to provide identification or if they committed multiple breaches in quick succession.
She said assessments were made case-by-case on whether continuing to issue recidivists with fines or arresting individuals and putting them before courts was the right approach.
“For the health and safety of every Victorian, we need people to follow these directives and will not hesitate to hold those who deliberately and blatantly show a disregard for community safety to account,” the spokeswoman said.
It comes as police on Saturday said they had fined 195 fines people for breaching lockdown rules.
A total of 27 were fined for failing to wear a face covering when leaving home.
Police also conducted 5,052 spot checks on people at homes, businesses and public places across the state.
Two men and a woman were found at a home in Boroondara drinking and watching the footy.
Two men were also found in a vehicle in Greater Dandenong and said they were out of their homes for exercise. Both were about 15-20km from their homes.
And a man was found in his car at Shoreham beach despite living more than 300km away in Wedderburn.
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