ALLEGED: THE LIES, HIGH-END SHOPPING AND GIANT PARTY
VIRUS PAIR CHARGED AS POLICE CLAIM BORDER DECEIT ‘PLANNED’
POLICE and health authorities are using mobile phone data and banking information to track the movements of two Brisbane women who travelled to Melbourne before returning to Queensland and causing chaos after they tested positive to coronavirus.
Precious hours were wasted when one of the women infected with COVID-19 refused to co-operate with authorities for more than a day, as new details emerged of a police investigation into her trip with two others to Melbourne to procure high-end designer gear.
Olivia Winnie Muranga and Diana Lasu, both 19, hosted an Airbnb party at a Melbourne CBD apartment – while the city was in hard lockdown – two days before allegedly lying to get back into Queensland, according to police.
It can be revealed highlytrained, specialist police were called in to bring family members of the two women into hotel quarantine, amid fears they were also infected with the virus.
Muranga and Lasu remained under police guard in the prison ward of the Princess Alexandra Hospital on Thursday as police charged them and a third travelling companion with providing false or misleading documents and fraud – for which the maximum penalty is five years jail.
Police have also revealed a separate criminal investigation is underway, run by detectives from the coronavirus response unit Task Force Sierra Linnet, that is “unrelated and not connected to the alleged travel to Victoria”.
The women are alleged to have lied about whether they had travelled to a coronavirus hot spot to get back into Queensland by flying home from Melbourne via Sydney.
Police initially investigated the movements of Muranga and Lasu before revealing a third woman had travelled with them.
The deception, which police claim was “planned”, has exposed the vulnerability of Queensland’s “honour system” border restrictions, with authorities not realising Muranga and Lasu were moving around the community while infected for eight days.
Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young revealed on Thursday the woman “has not wanted to let us know where she has been”, putting Queenslanders at risk.
“I don’t know where that second case has been,” Dr Young said.
“I am worried about the second individual who had not been co-operative and has not shared where she has been.”
Lasu decided to co-operate later in the day, according to police. It is understood the specialist Public Safety Response Team was used to bring family members of the women into hotel quarantine as there was a concern they were also infected with the virus.
The women’s re-entry into Queensland came just two days after they were busted hosting a loud and drunken party at a short-term rental in Melbourne’s CBD. Police removed about 30 people from the property and handed out more than $30,000 in fines.
Muranga, Lasu and the friend flew home via Sydney to allegedly convince officials they had not been to Melbourne.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said she was “bitterly disappointed”. “They went to extraordinary lengths to be deceitful and deceptive and … that has put the community at risk,” she said.
Ms Carroll said the women would face court to send a message that “we will not tolerate this behaviour”.