Northern Territory Police have issued six infringements to travellers entering the NT from hotspots without the necessary prior approval.

Members from Operation Crown met a flight from Sydney and another from Melbourne yesterday around lunchtime to process passengers. Five passengers on the Melbourne flight and one on the Sydney flight were deemed unauthorised entries.

Reasons given for travel included ‘holiday’ and’ transiting to another state for work purposes’. Others failed to declare they had been in hotspots in the preceding days.

They have been accommodated in Howard Springs while awaiting return flights to NSW and Victoria.

Incident Controller Acting Commander Hege Burns said, “Six people are out of pocket because they arrived without the necessary prior approvals. I urge Territorians who have friends, business associates or family interstate who are thinking of travelling from a hotspot to the Territory to check the NT Coronavirus website prior to travelling for the latest updates.  We will continue to turn people around at our borders in order to keep all Territorians safe as well as issue infringement notices to anyone who are found to have breached the Chief Health Officer’s directions.”

The penalty for failing to abide by the Chief Health Officer Directions issued under section 56 of the Public and Environment Health Act 2011 is $5024 for an individual (32 penalty units) and $25,120 for a business (160 penalty units).

Anyone intending to enter the NT is reminded to check the restrictions on www.coronavirus.nt.gov.au before travelling.