Six more border breachers busted at Darwin Airport after flying in from hot spots

Their excuses included ‘holiday’ and ‘transiting to another state for work’, while others failed to declare they had been in hot spots in the preceding days.

UPDATE Thursday: SIX more border restriction breachers have copped $5000 fines after flying into the NT without the necessary prior approval

Police met a flight from Sydney and another from Melbourne on Wednesday to process passengers, picking up five from Victorian hot spots and one from a NSW hot spot who were deemed unauthorised entries.

Reasons given by some of the six included “holiday” and “transiting to another state for work”, while others failed to declare they had been in hot spots in the preceding days.

All six are now in Howard Springs awaiting return flights.

Incident controller Hege Burns said officers would continue to send travellers who broke the rules packing and hand out fines.

“Six people are out of pocket because they arrived without the necessary prior approvals,” she said.

“I urge Territorians who have friends, business associates or family interstate who are thinking of travelling from a hotspot to the Territory to check the NT coronavirus website prior to travelling for the latest updates.”

EARLIER: Two travellers have been fined more than $5000 each for crossing the Northern Territory border without a permit.

The tourists were seen entering the NT at a remote location on the South Australian border that is monitored by police surveillance cameras.

Police caught up with the pair in Alice Springs and issued them with infringement notices before helping them complete their border entry forms.

Neither traveller had been to a Covid hotspot but Incident Controller Acting Commander, Lauren Hill said, “border controls have been in place for some time now, and there [are] no excuses”.

“Anyone travelling to the NT must lodge a border entry form. If you have not been in a hotspot, if you are a returning resident or if you have a work exemption, you will be welcome.”

Failure to comply with the chief health officer’s directions continues to carry a $5024 fine for individuals and $25,120 penalty for businesses.