Coronavirus: Perth woman who hid in truck to get into WA handed six-month jail term

A woman who hid in the back of a truck to enter WA has been given the nation’s steepest penalty for a breach of pandemic rules.

Asher Faye Vander Sanden, 28, dodged hotel quarantine by hiding in a car on the back of a truck at the Eucla checkpoint on the border of South Australia and WA. Picture: Facebook

A woman who hid in the back of a truck to enter Western Australia undetected has been given the nation’s steepest penalty for a breach of pandemic rules: six months and one day in prison.

Asher Faye Vander Sanden, 28, had been in Victoria for about a month when she dodged hotel quarantine by hiding in a car on the back of a truck at the Eucla checkpoint on the border of South Australia and WA. She apparently hitched a ride in the truck at Mildura.

She was sentenced in the Perth Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

Ms Vander Sander is a Perth resident who had been in Victoria visiting family when she sought and received permission to enter WA on a flight from Melbourne to Perth on August 11. She was supposed to meet police at the airport and go directly to hotel quarantine which would have cost her $2520. Since July 17, people granted exemptions to enter WA must pay for their own quarantine.

When Ms Vander Sanden failed to arrive as expected, police found her the same day at her boyfriend’s house in the northern beachside suburb of Scarborough. She has been in Bandyup Women’s Prison ever since. Ms Vander Sanden pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a direction and was made eligible for parole, meaning she may be freed in three months.