A man, who arrived in Adelaide on a Singapore repatriation flight on 3 August, broke out of his hotel quarantine to go to the pub.
South Australian Police said just after 10pm on 12 August, 33-year-old Paul McElhinney, from New South Wales, left his quarantine hotel, the Grand Chancellor Hotel, through a fire escape and made his way to the basement car park, where he was stopped and questioned by police.
He told the officers he had “wanted to get some air” after being at a nearby pub and his lie was only found out when he returned intoxicated to the quarantine hotel at 6:00am the next morning.
During his eight hours out of quarantine, he went to the Duke of York Hotel on nearby Currie Street and a McDonald’s Restaurant in Hindley Street. He was fully vaccinated at the time, and has returned at least four negative COVID-19 tests.
SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens described the breach as a “failure” of South Australia’s medi-hotel system. He was captured on CCTV but it was not being monitored by staff and there was no alarm on the fire exit and McElhinney conned the police when stopped.
McElhinney appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Wednesday, where he pleaded guilty to breaching the Emergency Management Act. He had returned from Scotland via Singapore after attending his father’s funeral.
“This is serious offending … and you’ve heard it suggested that the only appropriate penalty is jail and I think that might be the case,” said Magistrate John Fahey.
He was remanded in custody.
You have to ask: were those beers really worth it?
