It's believed an Auckland Lawyer attended an event in Hawke's bay over the weekend. Photo / Michael Craig
It's believed an Auckland Lawyer attended an event in Hawke's bay over the weekend. Photo / Michael Craig
An Auckland lawyer is being investigated after she attended a horse racing event in Hawke's Bay.
Stuff has reported the woman was allowed to cross an alert level boundary after being granted an exemption.
She is now being investigated by the Racing Integrity Board after attending the Hawke's Bay races.
The Windsor Park Plate took place over the weekend, however, due to level 2 restrictions, the race day was not open to the general public and hospitality guests.
Racing Integrity Board chief executive Mike Clement told Stuff the investigation is looking into a possible breach of New Zealand Thoroughbred Covid alert level 2 health protocols at the Hastings races.
Clement said the person left and returned home after being spoken to by an RIB Investigator.
"The person concerned is normally an Auckland resident but had a travel exemption to leave Auckland and live in an alert level 2 location. That exemption was issued in late September for reasons unrelated to racing," Clement told Stuff.
Aucklanders William Willis and lawyer Hannah Rawnsley broke lockdown restrictions by travelling to Wānaka last month.
Police claim the pair used essential worker exemptions to cross Auckland's southern alert level border before flying from Hamilton to Wānaka.
William Willis and Hannah Rawnsley last month broke Auckland lockdown regulations after travelling to Wanaka. Photos / Paul Taylor and Supplied
Willis and Rawnsley issued an apology on September 14 after declining to continue pursuing name suppression.
"The decision that we took to travel to Wanaka last week was completely irresponsible and inexcusable," their statement said at the time.
"We are deeply sorry for our actions and would like to unreservedly apologise to the Wanaka community, and to all the people of Aotearoa New Zealand, for what we did.
"We can confirm that as part of routine testing for essential workers when crossing the Auckland border, we both received negative Covid-19 tests prior to undertaking the travel, and on our subsequent return to Auckland. We can also confirm we were not considered close contacts nor had we had visited any locations of interest.
"We understand that strict compliance is required to stamp out Covid-19 from our country. We have let everyone down with our actions, and we wholeheartedly apologise."
