FIFO worker ends up in jail for hotel quarantine breaches
After allegedly leaving quarantine four times in one day, a FIFO worker based in Queensland is now behind bars in WA.
Police visited the Mont Clare Boutique apartments in Perth at 3.18pm on 23 October to check on 32-year-old New Zealand national Selu Siitia, who had been isolating at the hotel for 10 days when the alleged breaches occurred.
Police found Siitia at the Hay Street entrance, where he claimed to have dropped his phone from the balcony of his apartment.
Staff members then informed police that they had found him drinking and playing cards in his room with a co-worker who was also in quarantine only hours earlier.
"It's pretty much just a whole heap of people having fun, yelling and screaming. You can tell they were playing cards," Darren Chapman, a guest at the apartments told 9News.
As police were leaving, they caught him out again, at which point they told him he'd be transferred to the more secure Intercontinental Hotel.
Siitia made a request for bail to complete his quarantine in a hotel, but this request had been rejected this morning. The magistrate not only refused his application but also ordered him to restart his quarantine at Hakea Prison.
He'll front court again in November.
Siitia is yet to be tested for COVID-19.
Irit Jackson, 27th October 2020
