Nine more guests have been hit with fines after a Northern Beaches bride flouted the area’s Covid lockdown and got hitched at a swanky CBD venue.
Diana Falasca, 28, could have sparked a coronavirus catastrophe in Sydney when she tied the knot with Mark Bonifacio on Sunday in front of 18 other guests at Daltone House at Jones Bay Wharf in Pyrmont.
The Northern Beaches area has now been linked to 129 coronavirus cases, prompting the glamorous community into lockdown.
Police have now issued a total of 21 Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) for a litancy of Covid breaches by guests in attendance who made the trip south in breach of Public Health Order.
Pictured: Diana Falasca, 28, and her new husband Mark Bonifacio at their wedding celebrations on Sunday
Nine more guests have been hit with fines after a Norther Beaches bride flouted the area’s Covid lockdown and got hitched at a swanky CBD venue
‘After speaking with staff and attendees, police recorded contact details for more than a dozen guests, who are Northern Beaches residents,’ NSW Police said in a statement on Wednesday.
‘Police issued 12 PINs on Monday (28 December 2020) to attendees who are Northern Beaches residents.
‘Following further inquiries, another nine guests were identified as Northern Beaches residents and were spoken to by police before $1000 PINs were issued either in person or by post.’
The guest stung with fines include three men aged 31, 41 and 75 and two women aged 42 and 71 from Narraweena.
A 32-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman from Collaroy Plateau were also slapped with penalties, along with a 36-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman from Frenchs Forest.
Video showed the happy couple dancing in front of family and friends while celebrating their nuptials at Jones Bay Wharf in Pyrmont.
Officers crashed the celebration at Doltone House at 5pm after receiving a tip-off. Pictured: Bride Diana Falasca (left)
Mr Bonifacio did not breach the health regulations and was not fined.
By Monday morning, Ms Falasca and the 18 guests were each fined $1,000 for defying health orders and leaving the region following a Covid-19 outbreak on December 16.
Ms Falasca’s family and members of the bridal party were among the people hit with penalties.
Officers crashed the celebration at Doltone House at 5pm after receiving a tip-off, with pictures showing guests mingling on a balcony.
They waited until the ceremony was over before they began speaking with guests and staff, and handing out fines.
Ms Falasca’s parents refused to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia at their home in Narraweena on Tuesday, and both bride and groom did not respond to messages.
Among the rule-breakers were a man and a woman, both aged 43, from Allambie Heights, a 33-year-old woman from Narraweena, and a 27-year-old man from Frenchs Forest.
Mr Bonifacio and Ms Falasca with friends at an engagement party
Mr Bonifacio (pictured) did not breach the health regulations and was not fined
Pictured: The bride and groom (pictured centre) surrounded by friends at their wedding in Pyrmont
Three women, 19, 22 and 28, and two men, 23 and 63, from Beacon Hill were slapped with the hefty penalty.
An additional three people, including a 34-year-old man, a 36-year-old woman, both from Frenchs Forest, and a 26-year-old man from Beacon Hill will also be fined for attending the wedding.
More guests are expected to receive hefty penalties as officials comb through the guest list over the coming days to check where they came from.
Doltone House maintained the venue was compliant with all of the state’s lockdown rules and statutory obligations, but was misled by the wedding party.
‘These people, and all guests for that matter that attended the wedding, were required to, and did in fact, register their attendance at the venue through the NSW Government QR Code App,’ the venue said on their Facebook page.
‘Had Doltone House been advised that any person attending the wedding was doing so in breach of government restrictions, then it would have taken all necessary steps to protect the health and safety of its guests and the broader community.’
Family members told the Nine network the couple had been trying to wed since July and had been forced to postpone their wedding twice this year due to coronavirus.
Had they postponed the event again, they would have lost thousands of dollars.
Mr Bonifacio is pictured at the wedding reception with some of the guests. The guests here are not necessarily ones who were fined
Police crashed the nuptials at Doltone House in Pyrmont at 5pm on Sunday after receiving a tip-off. Pictured: guests at the reception
‘That is the type of behaviour that risks it for everybody,’ Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
‘But I think all of us were shaking our heads, absolutely aghast that that occurred.’
‘We appreciate that those milestone events are special times for people, but please consider the greater risk you are posing to every person in NSW and the broader community of our nation.
‘Please know that if you do the wrong thing, you will get caught, especially when it is so brazen as to do that.’
Fears are growing such breaches could put the whole of Sydney in jeopardy, after three mystery cases were announced on Tuesday, including one from Wollongong, one from inner-west Sydney and another from the North Shore.
‘After speaking with staff and attendees, police recorded contact details for more than a dozen guests, who are Northern Beaches residents,’ NSW Police said.
NSW police minister David Elliott said the group of Northern Beaches residents committed a ‘bastard act’.
‘You have been living in an area where there has been a cluster… and now everyone at that wedding has to worry if they have been exposed to Covid-19,’ he said on The Today Show on Tuesday.
Police outside a wedding in Pyrmont’s Doltone House on Sunday. Guests aged between 19 and 63 were fined after leaving the city’s northern peninsula to attend a the inner-city reception
The northern zone of the Northern Beaches will remain locked down until January 9 to stop the spread of Covid-19. The southern zone will be released from lockdown on January 2
Mr Elliott warned police can fine or jail people who breach the rules and pointed to a number of ‘disgraceful acts’ of ‘blatant disregard’ for health orders over the Christmas holiday period.
‘There have been disgraceful acts of what I believe is just blatant disregard for the health orders,’ Mr Elliott said.
‘They are simply unacceptable levels of misguided behaviour when it comes to the public health orders.’
Ms Berejiklian urged Greater Sydney residents to get tested after 16,000 people got swabbed on Tuesday, down from 70,000 on Thursday.
She said ‘Greater Sydney must be on high alert’ until the source of the three new mystery cases is found.
‘I say that in order to encourage as many people as possible across the state, even if you live in the regions, if you have the mildest of symptoms please come forward to get tested,’ Ms Berejiklian said.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) urged Greater Sydney residents to get tested after 16,000 people got swabbed on Tuesday, down from 70,000 on Thursday
Some 15,000 NSW residents got tested on Sunday. Pictured: Testing in Bondi last week
