Melburnians appear to have tried to break free of the strict COVID-19 lockdowns at the weekend by trying to sneak into regional Victoria.
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New data released by Victoria Police on Monday shows a substantial surge in people busted at regional checkpoints on Saturday and Sunday.
Sunday was by far the busiest day, with a record amount of people caught at the checkpoints.
There were 52 fines issued on Sunday out of a total of 17,582 cars checked. That's one in every 338 cars checked found to be breaching the rules.
On Saturday there were 24 fines issued from 22,481 checks - one car in every 937 travelling illegally.
To put this in context, only one in every 1938 cars were being fined in October before the weekend.
The amount of fines issued had previously dropped when the $4957 fine was introduced in mid-September.
Victoria Police does not reveal data from each individual roadblock, meaning the figures cover the entire of regional Victoria.
The latest figures come as Premier Daniel Andrews hints towards a different roadmap out of restrictions that could be released at the weekend.
Speaking at his daily press conference on Monday, Mr Andrews said regional Victoria could "possibly" take a further step out of lockdown at the end of the week.
He is expected to make a substantial announcement on Sunday, which could detail a different way forward and mean regional Victoria could advance separately to Melbourne.
From today onwards, regional Victorian businesses face a $10,000 fine if they do not check to see if their customers are from regional Victoria.
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