A couple who smuggled the wife out of locked-down Auckland to Rotorua via a Tauranga petrol station, only to be found out when the husband asked about a job for her, have received a discharge without conviction.

The couple, Simranpreet Singh and his wife Amanpreet Kaur, were charged with breaching the Covid-19 public health order and received the discharge at Tauranga District Court in December.

The breach took place on September 15, 2021, when Auckland was locked down under alert level 4 restrictions.

Details of the Covid border breach were revealed in November when Singh and Kaur​ entered guilty pleas to one charge each of failing to comply with the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act 2020.

The charges carried a maximum penalty of six months' imprisonment or a $4000 fine.

The summary of facts reveals 'their ongoing separation as a result of the restrictions imposed under alert level 4 resulted in the pair formulating a plan to have the defendant Kaur brought to Rotorua”.

On the day of their planned breach, September 15, 2021, Auckland was in alert level 4 while the rest of the country was in alert level 2.

Kaur lived in Auckland and husband Singh lived in Rotorua.

The pair said their separation was causing 'financial and emotional stress”.

'The associate was the passenger on a truck being driven by a co-worker, and he had earlier agreed with the defendant Singh to take the defendant Kaur out of Auckland,” the summary says.

'The vehicle was authorised to conduct essential travel in the form of delivering goods, and as such it passed through the Southern Auckland border that afternoon.”

By 8pm, Kaur was dropped off at the BP Tauriko service station in Tauranga, where Singh was waiting to take her back to Rotorua.

Their scheme unravelled, however, when Singh 'began making enquiries with his employer about obtaining employment for the defendant Kaur”.

'During this he disclosed that his wife was in Rotorua, leading to the police executing a search warrant at the defendant's home address…both defendants were home at the time, with the defendant Kaur having remained in Rotorua since she arrived the previous week.”

The summary noted both were tested for Covid-19, and found to be negative.

'Both defendants made full admissions to the offending and gave the same explanation; being that their separation was causing them financial and emotional stress.”

At their sentencing, Judge Cameron said there was 'significant material before the Court to the effect that Ms Kaur suffered significant hardship after being trapped in Auckland”.

'She was living in a flat with other Indian males and, given their culture, felt unable to join them and spent most of her time alone in her room.

'There was a report from a clinical psychologist to the effect that she was clearly suffering anxiety and depression.”

Cameron said that the pair decided to 'effectively cheat the system” and have Kaur 'spirited out of Auckland in the back of a truck”.

Cameron also said a conviction for the couple could have affected their immigration status.

'In terms of whether the consequences of the conviction would be out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending, I am satisfied in the particular circumstances of this case, they would be out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending,” he said.

'Accordingly, in relation to each of the two defendants, I grant their application to discharge them without conviction.”

- Benn Bathgate/Stuff