Palmer’s ex-skipper fined $4k

AN ex-skipper of Clive Palmer’s superyacht has been fined $4003 over a Melbourne millionaire’s controversial voyage from the COVID capital to the Gold Coast.

Greg Numa skippers Lady Pamela, a 30m luxury superyacht that arrived on the Glitter Strip on Monday carrying Victorian construction magnate Mark Simonds and his family.

It sparked a criminal investigation and led to Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young sensationally revoking exemptions for mandatory hotel quarantine for the Simonds party.

Dr Young said the exemptions had been given on the basis that Lady Pamela would not be stopping in COVID hotspot state NSW along the way and it was only meant to have on board the necessary people to bring it safely to Queensland for repairs at the Gold Coast City Marina.

She ordered Mr Simonds and the other six on board the yacht, including his wife Cheryl and son Vallence, into self-funded quarantine in the QT Hotel in Surfers Paradise.

Police revealed that Mr Numa had been hit with a $4003 fine for allegedly making false border declarations.

It’s believed all seven aboard have tested negative for COVID-19. Mr Numa was previously the skipper for Vegas, a 39m superyacht bought recently for a reputed $8.4m by Mr Palmer, the controversial billionaire Gold Coast mining magnate and former federal MP.

The 64-year-old veteran yacht captain was also former TV fishing guru and AFL commentator Rex Hunt’s manager until an ugly million-dollar court battle in the mid-2000s.

Contacted at the QT Hotel, Mr Numa said there were “two sides to every story’’.

“There’s your side, my side and then there’s the truth,’’ he said. “We’ll let everybody do their investigation and worry about it at the end. We’ll be right, it’s all good.”

Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said that a criminal investigation was ongoing.