The ridiculous excuses Melburnians have given police for not wearing a mask

Sixteen people received $200 fines for failing to wear a mask in public on the first day of mandatory mask-wearing in Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, and some gave ridiculous excuses for not wearing one.

One man told police he would not wear a mask because coronavirus is a conspiracy theory.

Another man refused to wear a mask and said he would not wear one in future because “the rules don’t apply to him”.

A man caught while driving more than 50 kilometres from Laverton to Mordialloc to “buy cigarettes” was also among the 101 people fined for breaching the Chief Health Officer’s restrictions in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, a gym owner who continued to operate his business in Hume against coronavirus restrictions was also issued a $9913 fine.

Twelve of today’s fines were issued at checkpoints on the border of the lockdown zone.

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