Coronavirus: Man ‘driving for exercise’ fined $1000 for breaking isolation

A Sydney man and his passenger have been fined $1000 each after being caught “driving for exercise” in the city’s eastern suburbs.

A Sydney man and his passenger have been fined $1000 each after being caught “driving for exercise” in the city’s eastern suburbs.

Just after midnight on Sunday, police pulled over a McLaren 650S in Potts Point. The 43-year-old driver told officers he was driving to nearby Woolloomooloo to get petrol – despite being from Fairfield, a suburb over 30 kilometres away in Sydney’s south.

After receiving a warning by officers, he informed them that driving is a form of exercise, exercise being one of the few legal reasons to leave the home under current lockdown restrictions in NSW.

Both the driver and his 60-year-old passenger were each issued a fine for breaking lockdown rules, with the man allegedly telling police: “Do what you want mate, I don’t care. This $1000 fine won’t hurt with my $15 million.”

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The man was driving a McLaren 560S, a car worth more than $250,000. Picture: Supplied

The incident is just the latest in a list of Penalty Infringement Notices handed out over the weekend to people caught allegedly flouting lockdown restrictions.

Since the Public Health Order was introduced, NSW Police have handed out hundreds of fines to people caught outside their homes without a “reasonable excuse”.

Examples of a “reasonable excuse” include “obtaining food or other goods and services, travelling for the purposes of work or education if the person cannot do it at home, exercise or medical or caring reasons”.

The majority of on-the-spot fines dished out so far, however, have not been in Sydney’s wealthier areas, despite multiple suburbs being named as virus hot spots.

An analysis of NSW Police data by  The Saturday Paper found infringement notices were disproportionately issued in the city’s lower socio-economic western suburbs, while the wealthier eastern suburbs and northern beaches account for a much smaller portion of fines.

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10.20pm I just signed new restrictions on leaving residences. Public Health(Covid19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement) Order 2020. Message- STAY HOME unless you need to go out for essential reasons such as work, study, obtaining food,medical supplies etc ⁦@NSWHealth⁩ pic.twitter.com/dsVP1IrWAo

— Brad Hazzard (@BradHazzard) March 30, 2020

The McLaren driver was the only infringement notice issued in the eastern suburbs over the weekend – while the bulk were issued around Auburn or Mount Druitt.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said when the fines were introduced that while police did not want to be handing out on-the-spot fines to people, “lives are at stake, and all of us have to accept that the world is different”.

There are more than 6500 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia – close to 3000 of which are in NSW, where 30 of the nation’s 72 coronavirus-related deaths have occurred.

Ms Berejiklian said at the beginning of April some of the state’s social-distancing rules could be relaxed as early as May 1, though lifting restrictions “comes with a risk”.

“When you do lift any of the restrictions, it does mean that more people will be admitted to our hospitals and more people who will succumb to the virus,” she said.

“Every time you relax a restriction, more people will get sick. More people will die.”

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said some of the laws would be in place until the end of June, and that he would not seek to extend them.

“People will have gotten the message by then, hopefully,” he said.