Three removalists who travelled to the central west from Sydney after testing positive to COVID-19, and posed an "extreme risk" to the community have been spared time behind bars.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Twins Roni and Ramsin Shawka, 28, and Maryo Shanki, 21, pleaded guilty in September to not complying with a COVID-19 notice direction.
The trio travelled in July from West Hoxton in southwest Sydney to Molong, stopping in Figtree, South Bowenfels and Orange.
READ MORE COURT AND CRIME:
In Orange Local Court on Wednesday, Magistrate David Day said the men placed the community at "extreme risk" and would have no issue sending them to jail if their grasp of English had been better.
All three are of Syrian background, and lacked proficiency in English with a Chaldean translator appearing for them in court on Monday.
Their lawyer Gregory Goold said they had lived in a village in Syria near the border with Iraq but came to Australia after fleeing ISIS.
Another mitigating factor was the twins' mother dying of COVID-19 not long after the incident occurred.
Before the trio travelled on July 16 from West Hoxton to Molong, they had been directed to attend a COVID-19 facility by their manager at On Time Removals, according to the facts submitted to the court.
Soon after their swabs they set off and stopped in South Bowenfels and Orange along the way.
About 9.30am their manager was contacted by a NSW health officer that Roni Shawka was unable to comprehend the health advice after testing positive to COVID-19.
This message was passed on and the court was told that he "did not direct him or the other men to stop the delivery but to wait for further directions".
Two hours later Shawka was told to self-isolate in the truck's cabin, while the others were soon contacted they had also tested positive.
"Unfortunately the three men proceeded to Molong and unloaded the truck," Mr Day said.
The area contained a number of vulnerable persons "by way of health, age, or First Nations people," with the magistrate citing Dubbo and Wilcannia as similar but where the virus had run rampant.
While no one was infected, "the risk was extreme," Mr Day said, given immunisation rates at the time were low.
Mr Goold submitted this was a case of "young men trying to do their best," but the precise requirements of what they should have done got "lost in translation".
While the court was told the public health order stipulated the men needed a negative result before driving out of their local government area, this was not the charge brought against them.
At the time Greater Sydney was under strict lockdown and public health orders stipulated all positive cases must isolate immediately.
Days after police escorted the men back home, the Shawka brothers' mother who was in her 50s died after contracting the virus.
The twins were forced to sit in a ute outside her Green Valley property while police conducted investigations inside the house.
Magistrate Day convicted and sentenced the three men to a one-year community corrections order.
They were also each fined $1100 and ordered collectively to pay $2000 to NSW police in decontamination cleaning fees for the vehicle used in arresting them.