Pair fined $2k as more isolation breaches revealed
(CNS): A Canadian couple, said to be owners at Regal Beach Club, were permitted to enter Cayman this month for a 14-day stay at the property but tampered with their iMsafe wristbands, enabling them to break quarantine multiple times. On Monday the couple were each fined $1,000 and opted to leave a few days ahead of their scheduled departure. But it has also been revealed that officials are dealing with three other cases of potential breaches.
Government officials released a statement on Wednesday, more than two days after the couple appeared via Zoom in Summary Court charged with breaking the Public Health Law and almost a week after the Travel Cayman monitoring team had discovered the couple’s consistent breaches.
Pascal Terjanian (52) and Cristina Gurunian (34) were allowed to leave Cayman, having produced a negative test one day before departure. They were supervised by a security officer, at their own expense, while they were given 24 hours to pack their belongings and then escorted to the airport. The couple will not be approved for return until after all COVID-19 mitigation measures are lifted.
It is understood that it was revealed in court that their movements during the breaches of isolation were caught on CCTV footage recovered by the authorities. This included swimming off Seven Mile Beach where the condo is located, walking on the beach, visiting a liquor store and going to the nearby Marriott hotel, where CNS has recently witnessed several people in quarantine mixing freely in and around the pool area while the hotel’s bars and restaurants are open to the general public.
What remains unclear following the court hearing and the release of the statement is how the couple were cleared to enter the country when they were planning to visit for just 14 days — the period of quarantine — and that did not raise red flags for the Travel Cayman team.
In the statement officials revealed that three other breaches of quarantine are now under investigation and that the iMsafe quarantine technology is being reviewed.
“While a single breach of quarantine protocols is regarded as one too many, there are an additional three cases associated to breaches of quarantine at residence protocols which are under investigation,” Dr Tasha Ebanks-Garcia, Director of Travel Cayman, said.
“Following the quarantine breach, the Travel Cayman team convened a meeting to review and strengthen the current processes, and close any gaps in the system that could potentially be exploited,” officials said in the release. “Travellers will now have to pass through an additional checkpoint at the airport to confirm that the bracelet has been fitted correctly, to mitigate against tampering.”
According to Dr Ebanks-Garcia, 2,510 people have arrived in Cayman since 1 October and just over 1,000 of them were allowed to quarantine at home or approved accommodation using the wrist bands. It now appears that there have been at least three breaches of the rules surrounding home isolation.
Nevertheless, Police Commissioner Derek Byrne said most people had stuck to the rules. But given the fact that the team appears to have been unaware that the wristbands could be tampered with, the true number cannot be confirmed.
“In light of recent events, it is necessary to reinforce the message that persons subject to quarantine restrictions and that are found to be in breach of those restrictions will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Byrne said.
However, despite multiple breaches, the couple in this case were fined just $1,000 when the maximum fine is $10,000.
Public health officials have said the required investigations regarding contact tracing were undertaken and all of the necessary individuals contacted. They said that in this case there is no longer a public health concern.
Deputy Governor Franz Manderson defended the quarantine programme and pointed out how well Cayman is fairing compared to other countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Compared to other countries the Cayman Islands is doing exceedingly well at keeping the coronavirus at bay, and keeping our islands safe remains a top priority,” he said. “Breaches of the COVID-19 regulations will therefore not be tolerated and we will seek to prosecute all confirmed violations,” he added, as he urged all travellers and their friends and loved ones to comply with the restrictions to keep the islands safe.
Category: Crime, Health, Medical Health
I see how Caymanians are divided. Next year all these cases will sound as ridiculous as they are, those people tested negative TWICE. How much you should ask? If you dont believe the test results don’t enforce to take them. And people who so concerned and calling on other people may God be upon you.
CNS: If you don’t agree with the testing/quarantine regime, don’t come to the Cayman Islands. Visitors don’t get to choose which of our laws they comply with and which ones they don’t. Their views and yours on the matter are irrelevant. They broke the law and got caught.
Thank you CNS..right on point..If you don’t like our laws, then don’t come here. If you break the law be prepared to pay the penalties..
Yes they tested negative, but what if they didn’t? Do you really think it would have made a difference in their actions?
If it’s and buts were candy & but we would all have a merry Christmas
The Golden Rule: Gold Rules!
If they were teens, they’d go to jail?
CNS got it right! This was indefensible as it’s a serious violation of the law. Speaks volumes about the writer of that post.
Perhaps CNS can explain how one can take garbage out of a condo to the dumpster without breaking the quarantine rules? One cannot live in a condo for 14 days without taking the garbage out.
CNS: What on earth are you talking about? Read paragraph 4 again.
CNS: Check what is a quarantine breach under these overly strict rules. If one was to go out of one’s condo and go to the far end of their parking lot where the dumpster was located to take out their garbage, one can be accused / charged for a quarantine breach.
Makes no difference if you have been tested 2 or 3 times negative.
We really need to take a much more pragmatic and less draconian approach to these matters like Bermuda and Barbados. Common sense has been thrown out the window here.
Cayman has a little village mentality ,gears on whitch hunt .Pathetic little judgers who live in their little cocoon
I there was a ‘Patience of a saint’ award I would nominate CNS. You always show restraint when dealing with idiotic comments like this one.
Ban them from coming here for life. They don’t deserve to be on this beautiful island!
CNS. Can you find out how much our people were fined for curfew breaches? Was anyone given a custodial sentence? Thanks
CNS: First curfew breacher jailed
He was the only one, I believe.
So they broke quarantine. And yes that’s not cool. But guess what my terrified self imprisoned amigos? They didn’t cause the grim virus to wreak havoc among us.
Amazing isn’t it? Can’t think why…oh, because they didn’t have it and yet we still lock them up for 2 weeks.
We’ve gone mad
That is like saying “I was speeding in my car the other day but no one was was killed and I wasn’t caught”. The point is that no matter how stupid we think laws are, there are penalties for breaking them.
They didn’t know they didn’t have it. That’s why quarantine is 2 weeks. Seriously, how do you STILL not understand this?
they were taken the test twice and it was negative .What other proof did they neeD?
CNS: Completely besides the point. It wasn’t their decision to make. Stop making excuses for lawbreakers.
Do you really think that if they had tested positive that they would have behaved themselves and stayed home?
I think you are the one who has gone mad..
They broke the law and would have done the same thing whether negative or positive..
This poster demonstrates why Govt must take this seriously and fine maximum and throw them off the Island! Because there will always be a segment of society that just don’t get it, don’t respect the laws because they know better and don’t care about the welfare of others.
They were not really Canadians.
They were Québécois.
Vive le Québec libre.
No they were not. He is an Armenian who acquired Canadian citizenship and she is from Lebanon. Certainly not French Canadians or Quebecois. Because one is from Quebec does not make one Quebecois.
But he is Canadian having acquired Canadian citizenship.
Geez, ignorance abounds.
both of you are biased racist pricks who cares what is their origin ,Canada is built on immigrants
Agreed 100%
Stop the mass hysteria & XXXXX they were tested negative twice
CNS: They came here knowing the law, which contains very stringent measures to protect the islands, and they broke the law. What they – or you – think about the law is irrelevant.
Thank you CNS – 100 likes for your respsonse
In Bermuda or Barbados they would have not had a problem having been tested negative twice.
Only in Cayman.
CNS: Then they should have gone to Bermuda or Barbados. If you come to Cayman, the laws in other countries are irrelevant. You obey the laws here. They didn’t.
CNS: That is not the point. The point is that Cayman has the most radical testing regime in the Caribbean. We are out of step with all our tourism based island neighbours. Why? When our economy is in dire straits and tourism business related businesses are going under every week.
See the story reported back in Montreal with the Montreal Gazette –> https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-dentist-kicked-out-of-cayman-islands-for-breaking-quarantine-rules
Given the man’s history back in Quebec as a dentist, there is no surprise of his behaviour with Cayman’s quarantine rules.
“Breaches of the COVID-19 regulations will therefore not be tolerated and we will seek to prosecute all confirmed violations,”
Seriously? He said that with a straight face?
4:08. Yes and it has been proven. Are you okay?
Law says the fine is $10,000 and he got off with a $1,000 fine. So no I’m not and neither should you.
These people come here and think that they can do what they want and it doesn’t help that we have an apathetic government that is absolutely incapable of hold any non-Caymanian or rich Caymanian accountable because they are afraid they will lose their source of income.
These people deliberately tampered with their monitors to do whatever the XXX they wanted with BLATANT disregard for anyone around them and they are fined $1,000 out of $10,000. What the hell do you have to do to get a $10,000 fine then?
Why does the government even say it will be a $10,000 when they obviously have NO intention of following their own laws.
F’N Muppets.. them and the dully elected muppetment of the Cayman Islands.
Muppet “Head” Hunter
I am as angry as you that these two goons got away with a slap on the wrist instead of a $10k fine each and both thrown in jail.
However, please understand the difference between the Government and the Judiciary. The Government do not sentence criminals.
Came here for 2 weeks? Pretty obvious they never had any intention of abiding by the quarantine rules! Exactly what does someone have to do to be fined the full 10k?
CNS – can we put more pressure on government to release new information on their “plan” for next year?? People are actually hoping to go away and come back! we need to know more now!!
Their “plan” is to open maybe in 2022. If your expat and have a home here you have no representation and you are not wanted. I hope you have insurance. Lots of hungry, jobless, and hopeless and more to come.
There’s a fair amount of press in Canada on this doctor:
In 2014, the dentist was found guilty for 38 infractions and was suspended from practicing dentistry for 30 months, according to the Gazette. If this man does have PR perhaps we need to reevaluate what sort of due diligence we use to allow persons to become permanent residents. If we are allowing property owners without PR then we need to reconsider this as we are heavily dependent with our own lives on their integrity with no means of vetting them.
If he has PR the Muppetment will not do anything about it. If they cared he would NOT have gotten PR in the first place if he has it.
I don’t know if he has PR but if he does one of two things happened.
1) Due diligence was NOT done else all of this man’s history would have came to light.
2) He paid/did favors for the right person/people.
Oh wait, this is most likely the case..
3) 1 & 2.
F’N Muppets
Muppet “Head” Hunter
I commented months ago that I overheard a couple out shopping at Cost U Less who said they had just got to the island a few days ago, (therefore were breaching quarantine)..and I got called a liar and alarmist. So here you go. Maybe commenters can stop being so rude now and insulting people just because they arent personally aware of things. This was before home isolation and before bracelets so maybe now you will believe that the same rules have not been applying to everyone all this time.
The same thing happened with the military the Governor brought in..privileged few..
Couple of Google searches on his name show Scotiabank filed a suit against him here, no details on why, but usually defaulting on a loan, and he was suspended from dentistry for 30 months for 38 infractions in 2014. Nice guy!
And a looker too 🤢
The most disgusting thing about people like this, is that they are the same privileged class that will accuse Caymanians of having a sense of entitlement. I guess the Caymanian sense of entitlement clashes with their own?
The couple will not be approved for return until after all COVID-19 mitigation measures are lifted…
How about never? Complete disregard for public safety – ban them.
Islands that welcome visitors. new episode:BOAT LIFE: Heading back out to Sea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eruePj-O5es
CNS: It’s important to note that the couple in this video, unlike the couple this article is about, complied with local laws. Big difference.
they had one test upon entry and it was negative, no quarantine requirements.
A BRAIN sample.. and then WE’RE FREE to Explore the Azores!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENOgPvA_uA8
CNS: COVID’19: CDC issued travel alert to avoid the Azores – the consequence for their lax approach.
Also, stop making excuses for law breakers. You enter a country, you abide by the laws.
From the link CNS provided:
“ The CDC recommendations seem to contradict the fact that COVID’19 in the Azores is very low and that local authorities have been praised for the high professionalism in containing and managing the spread of the pandemic.”
If these persons have permanent residency (which they probably do or will try to obtain), it is imperative that their PR is revoked or never granted! This is exactly the opportunity that we need to understand exactly who we are granting PR to. This is a very serious violation of the law and should be treated as such. It might be useful to make this point to others that come in, that they risk losing their PR. Finally, how is it that these devices are so easily tampered with? Govt risks losing all they did right, by allowing persons to come in that cannot be properly supervised.
1106am. The people who are attaching those wrist bands are doing a poor job. Why is it that the competence of some people is so limited. Get your act together anesrn our salary.
Cheap labor and weak characters, my friends. You pay for it in one way or the next.
Cayman used to be about about quality workers, quality work, and quality salary. Unfortunately, the group that still values these principles are dwindling because of the conquistador and piracy-like greed amongst us these days and the growing strain on those who would but are struggling to provide. ($6 a hour has never been enough to fairly constitute a minimum wage in Cayman for anyone)
Wow! So agreed. 😔Wherever we are going as a people we are getting their fast.
This whole situation goes to show the ineptness of our Government, Travel Time and the unreasonable and unfair bias of our judicial system.
This was a prime opportunity to emphasize the seriousness and harshness of penalties for subjecting our people to the possibility of community transmission and violating our laws.
Instead, we get excuses long after the incident occurred from Travel Time and nothing directly from the Premier or the Health Minister. even the governor who is consistently on social media has been quiet about this one. Top this off with a very lenient judge who lives here and should realize the seriousness of these offenses simply providing a slap on the wrist which is about as effective as the IMSafe wrist bands they were supposed to be wearing.
Anywhere else in the world, the government would be the first to report this to their people. The fact that these two had been here for almost 14 days before they were caught, not by Travel Time but by caring citizens who contacted the Police speaks volumes to the ineptness and lack of serious thought that has gone into setting this process.
I have nothing against Dr. Garcia personally, but she has failed on numerous occasions to our detriment and if she is not able to put more vigorous controls into place to protect us then she should be replaced with someone that can. It is not feasible for us to continue this way. We were lucky that these two were not positive because if they were this whole island may have had to be locked down again. It is that serious. I for one do not want me or any of my family members to be exposed to this virus if we can help it.
Allowing people to come here and blatantly flaunt the system, putting them in a hotel room instead of a jail cell after they have been caught and giving them a measly $1000 fine and a free ride to the airport is certainly not sending a good message to all the others booked to come here under this regime.
Someone please explain why a $10,000.00 fine is reduced to $1,000.00 for well off blatant disrespectful persons! XXXX
Sounds about white.
White you are. Two wrongs don’t make it white. They know the difference between white and wrong. What gives them the white? White before our very…ok, I’ll stop now. 🙂
They were the right flavor ice cream. Let that had been a Caymanian in breach.
How about fines reduced to zero for people who have personal trainers visit in lockdown?
Should be $10,000 times every infraction, that’s what my eleven year old said this morning when she heard about it.
10:31am. Ask the Magistrate. Hope he will be more lenient with others. Not charges.
BBC did an article indicating that 20% of people break quarantine
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54346001
The rate of quarantine breach may be something similar here as nobody (apart from the Regal Beach management) is checking.
The Regal Beach Club Management needs to be applauded ten times over for reporting this incident. Travel Time nor the Police had no clue this was going on as it appears no one was checking in on them for near on 14 days.
I believe in privacy as much as anyone but Travel Time needs to at least inform the managers and surrounding residents that these people are isolating at the property.
My family, including my wife and two young children spent a weekend there during this time and most likely at some point came in contact with these people. Believe me, if one of them had become infected due to the laxness and irresponsibility of Travel Time, someone would be held accountable.
You need to get a life and worry about stuff that matters. At your and your children’s age covid-19 is a non issue and chances of getting it from someone who was not infected were nil!!
1.20pm His family do not matter? How do you know they were not infected? Good riddance ‘Dr’.
Yes, great job reporting every time he took the trash out to the dumpster. Better to get cholera from the rats than COVID. 😷
You forgot going to Blackbeards for liquor and Fosters for groceries and to the AMrriott for god knows what..Imagine if one of them had covid and you came in contact with them at the grocery store or for the matter have one of your elderly parents with you.
To trivialize the actions of these people is nothing short of stupid not to mention their actions were against the laws of the country that welcomed them with the agreement that they would obey those laws put in place to keep all of us safe.
There should be big signs in licensed facilities, grocery stores etc showing what these iMsafe devices look like so we will know to stay away from people who know that they won’t be caught/think of the fine as a ‘freedom fee’ and therefore don’t bother to quarantine
That would solve nothing. They remove the bracelet so no one would be the wiser. In this case, they left the bracelets and the govt issues phones on their bed in the condo while they traipsed around west bay to the liquor store, grocery store, pool, beach, etc…
Sad when we have dummies arriving here from the UK and Canada who will not obey quarantine rules. What is even sadder is that we have imbeciles in our government who are inviting them to come here who believe they will!
Why were imbeciles from the USA not included in your comment?
Everyone knows that there are not now and never have been any imbeciles from the US – including Presidents.
Naya Boy – on what basis do dummies like you state that arrivals from the UK will not obey quarantine laws?.Have you forgotten the original clusters in West Bay who were supposed to be self isolating but were wondering around the supermarkets. Maybe these people are the ones you should be referring to as imbeciles.
And the dummies already here in government allowing these idiots to enter our country.
Don’t jail this Man! jail those who let him in!Eh Moses and DOKTOR Ebanks-Garcia for failing to protect the general public from these jokers.Aiding and abetting the commission of crime is offense in our Penal Code? IMsafe is clearly defrauding our government and that begs the next questions. What process was used to test these wristbrands who is behind and benefiting from this rubbish which is obviously a scam?
So the message that is going out is that you can pay an extra $1000 and skip quarantine all together.
Then be given the option to leave immediately and be banned from returning until the Covid rules have been lifted… Hmmm
Yeah, not sure that was their plan.
Not sure why their plan was to come for only 2 weeks and spend it closed up in a condo with a veranda view to the mouthwatering white sand and aqua waters…
You think they didn’t intend all along to breach the quarantine? That’s why you would come.
BTW, when you finish quarantine no one comes to remover your band. You are just told to cut it off yourself and return it. So you can cut it off on day one of quarantine and no one would be the wiser. The only way you can protect against that is random calls or visits to check you are with the phone or have the bracelet attached. But in 2 weeks the only calls I got was when the phone went flat and stopped communicating with the control centre. And they called my cell phone – I could have been anywhere.
Well “immediately..” was like 3 days before planned departure.
He came here for a purpose and to close a deal and he did just that. Travel-time was asleep at the wheel.