Superyacht captain fined for lying to get coronavirus border exemption

The captain of a superyacht that sailed into Queensland from Victoria, Australia, has defended his employer, saying they had nothing to do with the trail of lies used to get an exemption to cross the border.

The Lady Pamela, which is owned by Victorian millionaire Mark Simonds, left Melbourne on August 9 for a 15-day voyage with seven people on board.

The police prosecutor said 83 emails had been exchanged between Greg Numa (the captain) and a Maritime Safety Queensland officer as part of an application for exemption from the Chief Health Officer, according to ABC News. This was, seemingly, so that guests and crew could avoid quarantine.

The court heard the Lady Pamela stopped at three locations along the New South Wales coast, a coronavirus hotspot, where guests were seen leaving the yacht.

Senior Sergeant Summerfield said Numa, in multiple emails, claimed no-one had disembarked, and in one email exchange said: “We have had no contact with the outside world.”

“The integrity of the Fox family and the Simonds family remains. They had absolutely nothing to do with my decision,” Numa said outside court, according to ABC News.

Numa was fined $4,500 for breaching the Public Health Act with no conviction recorded. He pleaded guilty to providing false and misleading statements to an emergency officer under the Public Health Act.