Infected Rose Bay man identified as Byron Bay traveller charged

A Sydney man will face court in September after being charged with breaching public health orders and travelling to the Byron Bay area while infected with Covid-19.

Ellie Dudley and Joseph Lam

less than 2 min read

1:23PMAugust 11, 2021.

Updated 9:21PMAugust 11, 2021

Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys provides a Covid-19 update in Sydney. Picture: NCA Newswire/Gaye Gerard

A Sydney man will face court in September after being charged with breaching public health orders and travelling to the Byron Bay area while infected with Covid-19.

Zoran Radovanovic, 52, who is being treated for the virus in Lismore Base Hospital, was served a court attendance notice on Wednesday for the breach, in which he allegedly left his home in Sydney’s Rose Bay to inspect real estate in the far northern NSW coastal town.

His alleged presence in the community while infected forced Byron Shire, Richmond Valley, Lismore, Ballina and the Northern Rivers into a snap seven-day lockdown.

Police alleged the man travelled “without a reasonable excuse and in contravention of the public health orders” and as a result will be charged once inquiries are complete.

The man allegedly drove with his two children to Byron and was in the Northern Rivers community for four days while infectious last week. He allegedly did not comply with QR code check-in requirements. It is not clear if he knew he was infectious.

Mr Radovanovic will face a total of seven charges; three for not complying with noticed Covid-19 directions and four of “fail to comply with electronic registration directive”.

Mr Radovanovic arrived in Australia from then Yugoslavia in 1991. A year later he was already in trouble with the law, convicted in the Prahran Magistrates Court of burglary, theft and theft of a motor car and sentenced to six months jail, later suspended.

In 1998 he was convicted of cultivating and possessing cannabis after 40 marihuana plants were found at his flat.

In 2000 Mr Radovanovic successfully fought an attempt by the government to send him back to Yugoslavia with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal finding he would “demonstrate his capacity to make a contribution to Australia.” NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys on Wednesday refused to answer specific questions but said people in regional communities were “devastated” by people who travel into their areas from Greater Sydney.

“Police have issued an amount of infringement notices.

“A $1000 on-the-spot penalty is a considerable penalty for many of us to endure,” he said.

“People can also be put before the courts.”

Mr Radovanovic was granted “strict” conditional bail and will appear at Lismore Local Court on September 13.