Woman behind Hunter lockdown to learn fate
A 21-year-old who breached Sydney's lockdown, partied in Newcastle and sparked a months-long lockdown in regional NSW is due to be sentenced.
Sulafa Ageeb Ageeb, 21, tested positive to COVID-19 after spending several days shopping and partying in Newcastle in late July.
She'd earlier been stopped by police on multiple occasions but lied about her circumstances and plans to return home.
Ageeb failed to check in at the numerous venues she visited with three friends, including a nail salon in Newcastle's largest shopping complex.
One of those friends, Rooty Hill woman Josephine Lado, was convicted and fined $4000 for her trip on November 11.
Ageeb, who is listed in court documents at both Epping and Guilford addresses, is due to be sentenced by a Hornsby magistrate on Wednesday.
In court documents, police say a significant number of COVID-19-infected people in the Hunter region appear to be directly linked to their movements.
"The only reasonable hypothesis" was the women's actions directly resulted in COVID-19 spreading across the region.
Both women pleaded guilty at the earliest occasion for failing to comply with a COVID-19 health order and failing to comply with COVID check-in requirements.
When sentencing Lado, Mount Druitt magistrate Andrew George said the 20-year-old "now" knew she let the community down substantially "but it's a bit late for the people she infected".
They admitted shopping and going to a nail salon with two other women in Charlestown on July 29 before a house party in Shortland that night.
When police were alerted to the party about 1.45am on July 30, they saw "numerous" people run into a parked car and found the offenders in the back seat pretending to sleep.
Police said the pair undertook a "calculated and concerted effort" to alter check-in and address data in their Service NSW app.
Ordered to return home and told to expect $1000 fines in the mail, Ageeb and Lado instead remained in Newcastle for a further night.
First up was a large party at Blacksmiths Beach in Lake Macquarie before heading back to the Shortland home for another party, which police say was attended by "numerous" others.
They caught a train home on July 31.
Positive cases in the region related to the women were uncovered on August 5, sparking an immediate lockdown.
