Two men to pay K15,000 fine for breach of SOE orders

TWO man were ordered by a court to pay fines totalling K15,000 after they pleaded guilty to breaching the State of Emergency (SOE) orders during the Easter long weekend in Morobe.
Lae District Court Magistrate Tera Dawai in a special court sitting on Thursday ordered Issack Karis, 22, from Tambul, Western Highlands, to pay a K10,000 fine or face 12 months’ jail; and Jeremy Willie, 30, also from Tambul, to pay K5,000 or face six months’ jail since he was a first time offender and had asked for leniency.
The court heard that Karis had a prior conviction for a traffic offence.
The court was told that on Sunday, April 12, Willie was driving a PMV bus along the Highlands Highway from Lae to Nadzab when he was caught by police and taken in for questioning.
The court heard that the men had failed to comply with the National Emergency Order Number 7 (4) dated April 8 given by SOE controller David Manning and contravening the National Emergency Order 9 (4) of Emergency General Provisions (Covid-19) Regulation 2020. The direction was that no public transport was to operate within Papua New Guinea from 11.59pm on Thursday April 9 until 6am Tuesday April 14, 2020. The police report indicated that Karis, on April 13 between 10am and 11am was driving a PMV on the Wau-Bulolo Highway and was spotted by a police unit picking up passengers.