Statutory declaration border crossing ‘discrepancies’ caught attention of police

NT Police say that discrepancies on the declaration forms of two men travelling to the Territory from Cairns drew their attention before the pair was taken into custody and placed into enforced quarantine

NT Police say that discrepancies on the declaration forms of two men travelling to the Territory from Cairns drew their attention before the pair was taken into custody and placed into enforced quarantine.

The men have each been issued with a notice to appear in court for failing to abide by the Chief Health officer’s directions, and making a false declaration for allegedly lying on their statutory declarations.

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NT Police commander Matt Hollamby said when the men flew into Nhulunbuy — where they live intermittently — they submitted individual declarations stating they hadn’t been in a hotspot in the past two weeks.

“Some suspicions were aroused because there where some discrepancies in the two different forms and the police made some further inquiries,” he said.

“(Police) pursued other avenues of inquiry and identified the men had been in Sydney throughout the last two weeks.”

The men have been transferred to Howard Springs quarantine facility, where they will pay for their stay, before facing court upon completion of their mandatory isolation period.

Cmdr Hollamby said the incident had cost police significant resources, time and money.

“This whole incident has been a huge logistic exercise,” he said.

“It’s cost time and money for the police. It includes flying an aircraft from Darwin to Nhulunbuy and back. It involves cleaning of the police station, cleaning of the aircraft ... overall it’s just bad behaviour that could have been prevented.

“The message to travellers is ‘don’t take the risk, don’t be selfish, don’t be greedy and more importantly respect the rights and privileges of the NT where we don’t have coronavirus’.

“Don’t bring it in and don’t be patient zero.”

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Mr Hollamby said there was minimal risk to the community despite the scare.

“One of the first things we’ve done is arrange for the two men to be tested … the results are negative,” he said.

“We are making some inquiries in regards to what they’ve done, between the period of arrival and the period of apprehension and at this stage we’re relatively confident they have had minimal contact with the Nhulunbuy community.”