IN THEIR WORDS: Alleged border dodgers’ journey to Qld

A PERTH couple accused of overtly breaching Queensland’s difficult border restrictions chronicled their elaborate plans to get into the state from Victoria in a chain of on-line posts.

Pet sitters Lawrence Gordon Petersen, 63, and Edith van Dommelen, 68, had been slapped with felony fees for allegedly falsely stating they’d no longer travelled to a COVID-19 hotspot after they crossed the border at Goondiwindi on July 27.

The Courier-Mail can expose the pair were puppy and area sitting about 70km outdoor of Melbourne earlier than they travelled via NSW into Queensland the place they went to a medical institution, visited an aged relative in her house, ate in numerous cafes and stayed in a Toowoomba motel.

The pair, who at the moment are area sitting in Mt Gravatt, confronted the Richlands Magistrates Court the previous day charged with fraud and failing to agree to border instructions however had their subject adjourned to subsequent month to give them time to search criminal recommendation.

When requested outdoor courtroom in the event that they lied on their border go, Petersen answered “no we did not”. He gave the similar resolution when requested in the event that they had been mindful they might no longer input Queensland after being in a COVID-19 hotspot.

The duo posted common updates to Facebook about their travels and plans to get into Queensland after their stint of puppy sitting in Woodend, about 70km from Melbourne.

On July 26, the day they left Victoria, the state used to be within the grips of its fatal 2d wave of the coronavirus with greater than 4200 energetic instances whilst Queensland had simply 5 energetic instances.

On July 27, van Dommelen informed her Facebook buddies that the pair had made it to Queensland and detailed their elaborate “A, B and C” plans to succeed in the light state, discussing the allows and necessities wanted for every.

“I did say watch this space…….well confirmation that Plan C to exit Victoria, has been successfully executed and completed,” she wrote.

“Now relaxing in our Toowoomba accommodation for two night until the start of the first of two house pet sits that replaced SA Crystal Brook house pet sit that we should have started today.”

Friends of the pair commented at the journey and one warned they will have to be examined for the coronavirus. Van Dommelen responded they supposed to be examined but in addition joked in different replies that her “second names include resilience and persistence” and that she didn’t consider in “can’t be done or no”.

On August four, 9 days after arriving in Queensland, the pair had been detained via police in Nanango and positioned into necessary quarantine within the South Burnett house.

In the July 27 publish, van Dommelen stated “Plan A” were to go out Victoria with a allow to input South Australia however that used to be no longer licensed.

She stated their 2d plan used to be to go out Victoria with a NSW allow as seasonal staff however the allows had been “voided” and they’d have wanted to reapply.

She stated “Plan C” were a hit they usually got a NSW allow to transit in the course of the state, claiming a allow to input Queensland were licensed.

She stated “Plan D” would had been to do a 41-day area sit down at a vacant motel in Victoria.

In the times after getting into Queensland, the pair visited quite a few puts together with a medical institution, a restaurant, a motel or even an aged relative in her house.

On July 30, van Dommelen posted they’d taken the Nanango lady whose house and pets they’d been booked to take care of to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital forward of a “major” surgical operation.

She stated after crossing the border, they stayed a number of nights in a resort in the primary side road of Toowoomba and had eaten at a close-by cafe.

On July 29 the pair had additionally visited an aged relative in her house close to Toowoomba earlier than travelling to meet different area sit down shoppers at Forest Ridge.

During a short lived look in courtroom the previous day, Petersen and van Dommelen requested for his or her case to be adjourned to permit them time to search criminal recommendation.

The pair, who’re these days area and puppy sitting at an Upper Mt Gravatt deal with, stated they’d upcoming bookings to area sit down in different Queensland properties together with one at Toowoomba.

Magistrate Aaron Simpson informed the pair they would wish to search permission from the administrative center of police prosecutions every time they modified their deal with in Queensland, differently they may well be arrested for breaching their bail prerequisites.

“I don’t know anything about you but looking at you I get the impression you won’t run away but the court needs to know where you are,” Mr Simpson stated.

Their case used to be adjourned to September 15.

Originally printed as In their phrases: Alleged border dodgers’ journey to Queensland