Lockdown breacher busted
A man stopped twice by police for breaking his bubble during alert level four has been warned by a judge not to breach the rules again.
Jackson Thomas Bohanna, 20, was charged with obstructing a medical officer of health and sentenced to 80 hours community work in the Nelson District Court on Monday.
His appearance follows that of Nelson student Jessie Dredge, who was also sentenced to 80 hours’ community work after she told police the lockdown was ‘‘a joke’’.
A police summary of facts said Bohanna had been warned twice before for breaching the Covid-19 lockdown rules.
On April 7, he was a passenger in a vehicle on Waimea Rd with three people from three different bubbles who provided no lawful reason to be travelling. Bohanna was reminded of the lockdown rules.
Just after midnight the following day, Bohanna was again stopped in a vehicle with people from different bubbles who had no reason to be travelling.
Then on April 17, he was seen by police at an address in Westbrook Terrace. Once he realised he had been seen, he ran inside and the occupants denied he was there. A short time later he was arrested by police.
In explanation, he said he had left his lockdown address because of an argument with his mother.
Judge Richard Russell said Bohanna had been educated, warned and then had breached the rules again, which was serious offending.
Those who faced more than one charge of breaching the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were isolated in a prison cell for 14 days so they couldn’t potentially pass the virus on to others.
Judge Russell said Bohanna had avoided that as he did not face multiple charges.
‘‘What you need to understand very clearly is if you come back again on another breach charge, it is highly likely that you will suffer the same fate as those others, in other words you will be in a prison cell for at least 14 days, if not longer.’’