Jail time only answer for border hoppers

I’M sure that like many others, people are utterly sick and tired of these people who are sneaking into other states and returning to this country from overseas with positive readings during this COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s been going on for a year now and people and the various government bodies should know better and have it all under control.

The latest people, a 26-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman, ran away from police at Melbourne Airport and were later found in across the NSW border in Goulburn and will be given fines of more than $19,000.

We all know that the majority of the fines for people during this last year will not/are not paid and go directly to SPER, where they will sit and accrue penalties on top of the fines.

It’s ludicrous to expect the public to believe that between these two latest people, that they will front up with more than $19,000, anymore than the five people who were recently given fines of more than $20,000. So, what to do?

Unless these people given fines, are homeowners or have the financial means to pay these fines, not much will happen to them, as opposed to those who are homeowners and have some form of equity, which can be used against the cost of the outstanding fines.

If fines aren’t going to be paid, then I think a term of imprisonment is the answer, because they’ll never voluntarily pay, so either they go to prison or their wages (if they’re working) are garnered each week until the outstanding amount is paid.

For those on Centrelink benefits, it should mean that they face an automatic term in prison because it’s utterly ridiculous to say that a percentage of their government/ taxpayer funded benefits, should be used to pay for their government enforced fines.

Forget the courts are banked up with cases, forget there’s not enough prisons, make it a mandatory sentence without needing to go through the courts for those who think it’s a big game to try to circumvent the COVID-19 laws put in place to keep our country safe.

Having a term of imprisonment against their name will cause them so much strife throughout their life that it should be enough to make sure they choose to pay up.