Victoria Police had a busy New Year’s Eve this year, responding to 102 calls for service, including issuing one man three different COVID-19 related tickets.
Just after 1 a.m. on Friday, a taxi driver called 911 to report that a man in their cab was refusing to wear a mask, touching the driver’s face, and “belligerently” refusing the driver’s requests for the passenger to follow COVID-19 safety rules.
After enough was enough, the cabbie took the situation into their own hands by driving the man directly to VicPD headquarters, located on Caledonia Avenue.
Upon arrival, the man was met by waiting VicPD officers. After the passenger refused to comply with officers’ demands to exit the vehicle, he was removed from the cab and taken into custody.
The taxi passenger will face three CRMA fines, including: failing to wear a facial covering, abusive or belligerent behavior, and failing to comply with the direction of an officer.
The penalty for each of these fines is $230 respectively, for a grand total of $690; this tops the charts as the largest number of CRMA fines issued to an individual by VicPD to date.
The ‘belligerent’ man was also ticketed for being intoxicated in a public place, and held in VicPD cells until sober.
In addition, VicPD responded to over a dozen reports of gatherings, including house and hotel parties.
Officers attended and broke up the gatherings while informing the party-goers of their responsibilities under the CRMA.
