Pensioners slapped with $574 fine for trip to 'closed' Couran Cove Island Resort pool

An elderly Gold Coast couple have been fined $574 after taking their granddaughter to visit their community pool on Easter Sunday - find out why.

An elderly couple fined $574 after taking their granddaughter to visit their community pool on Easter Sunday are refusing to pay up.

The couple plan to dispute the fine in court and have slammed it as a “waste of police resources”.

A Queensland Police Service spokeswoman said two people were issued infringement notices on April 9 for allegedly entering licenced premises they were banned from and trespassing.

Couran Cove Island Resort residents Bernie and Margaret Woods said police fined them after they took their granddaughter for a swim in the resort’s pool area about 1pm on Sunday.

They said a resort staff member told them to leave the area shortly after they arrived as it was a “health and safety issue”.

A copy of one of the infringement notices Bernie and Margaret Woods received. Picture: supplied

The area was not barricaded off and there were no signs stating this, Mr Woods said.

They left the area shortly after and dropped their granddaughter home to the mainland.

Signs and barricades around an empty pool at Couran Cove Island Resort.

Mr Woods said they were stunned to find two fines for $287 each waiting for them when they arrived back at their South Stradbroke Island home later that afternoon.

“It is ridiculous. There is no way in the world I will be paying that - I will contest it.”

Resort general manager Emily McBride said a staff member saw a couple with a child in a closed-off pool area and asked them to leave.

Couran Cove resident Bernie Woods. Picture Mike Batterham

“The area is barricaded and clearly signed warning all persons to keep out. The area has an empty pool and the child was inside the empty pool under the watch of the couple,” Ms McBride said.

“The main pool does have water in it and that area, which is adjacent, is open and is not fenced off.”

She said an acting general manager reported the incident to police because the couple had contravened a barring notice.

An empty pool at Couran Cove Island Resort.

Mr Woods said he could not be banned from the pool area as residents paid for it as part of their body corporate levies.

Several other resort residents have received a ‘barring notice’ from management.

It comes as dozens of resort residents scramble to find alternative accommodation after they received a letter stating their electricity, gas and water services would be cut from 10am on April 17.

The reason given was due to alleged unpaid body corporate fees.

There are five bodies corporate involved on the island, with complex court proceedings playing out over allegations of millions of dollars in unpaid levies.

Originally published as Pensioners slapped with $574 fine for trip to 'closed' Couran Cove Island Resort pool