Police catch person hiding in car trying to cross Auckland Covid checkpoint

September 26, 2021
Police patrol a Covid-19 checkpoint at the intersections of East Coast Road and Miranda Road in rural north Waikato.

A majority of Aucklanders have been following Alert Level 3 rules, police say, but they’ve found a few people not quite following the rules. 

In their daily compliance update, police said they stopped one car at the checkpoint in Mercer at 7pm on Saturday in breach of their 24-hour bail conditions. 

Upon searching the vehicle, police said they found a passenger hiding in the rear also trying to make it out of Auckland. 

Police said neither of the two had the documentation needed to leave Auckland’s alert level restrictions. 

The 31-year-old male driver and 27-year-old female passenger were arrested and are now facing drug charges along with breaching Covid-related public health orders. 

About 30 minutes later, another 30-year-old driver tried to flee through the Mercer checkpoint. He will be appearing in court at a later date. 

At the northern border, a farmer found a 55-year-old man trying to drive up his water race to avoid the checkpoint at Vipond Road. 

The man was arrested and has been charged with driving while disqualified, giving false details and breaching public health orders. 

Since Alert Level 3 came into place on Tuesday night, three people across Auckland and upper Hauraki have been charged with a total of three offences as of Saturday 5pm. In the same time period, one person was formally warned.

Of these, one is for Failing to Comply with the Order for Covid-19, one is for Failure to Comply with Direction/Prohibition/Restriction, and one is a Health Act Breach.

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