Maskless ZR driver fined $1 000

Despite the ads and the posters, one ZR driver yesterday claimed he did not know that the face mask was supposed to cover his nose.

Mitchell Coulthrust got the message the expensive way when he was fined after he appeared in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court.

Coulthrust, of Fairview, St George, had just pleaded guilty to the charge that being the driver of ZR 330, he stopped at a place other than a bus stop on Prince Alfred Street to pick up passengers on May 14, last year.

He also admitted that he contravened Paragraph (7) of the Emergency Management COVID-19 Order No 4, 2020, in that he failed to wear a mask on the same date.

“I didn’t understand that your nose had to be covered,” he told the court.

Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes fined Coulthrust $1 000 in 12 weeks or six months in prison for not wearing the mask and convicted, reprimanded and discharged him for the traffic offence. (HLE)