Border jumper nestled in boot
A WOMAN is out $4135 after she was found hiding in a car boot during an ill-fated attempt to cross into Queensland undetected.
Police released body-worn camera footage of the incident which showed the woman hiding in a car that was atop a flat-bed tow truck.
They pulled the tow truck over at Goondiwindi on August 18 and searched the vehicle after suspecting someone was trying to move to Queensland.
The woman was snuggled under a pile of blankets and
pillows in the boot.
In footage released by the Queensland Police Service, a police officer can be heard directing the driver to get out of the truck after the woman was discovered in the boot.
“I am going to be nice to you, there is no need to be rude,” he said.
The video shows the woman arguing with police.
“It’s towing a number of things that look like it’s furniture, which makes it appear to me that someone’s trying to move to Queensland,” the officer said.
“So do you understand that you’re not allowed in
Queensland at the moment?”
When the woman said she did not know, the officer replied: “Can I ask you if you didn’t know that, why you were hiding in the boot?”
The woman had been denied entry to Queensland at the same border crossing in Goondiwindi on two previous occasions.
She was arrested and transported to Boggabilla in New South Wales and fined $4135 for Fail to Comply – COVID-19 Border Direction.
It was the only fine handed out at the Goondiwindi vehicle checkpoint in the past 10 days.
On Wednesday the State Government announced a blanket ban on people moving to Queensland from declared Covid hot spots in New South Wales and Victoria as it works to clear a backlog of more than 5000 people in hotel quarantine.
Travel across the border is now heavily restricted.
Only essential workers who have had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine are allowed into the state.
Border region residents can cross into Queensland to access medical treatment only if they have an appointment or it is an emergency.