London, April 16, 2020 (AltAfrica)-A man who repeatedly sneaked out of a hotel to visit his girlfriend has become the first person in Australia to be jailed for breaching a coronavirus quarantine order.

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Jonathan David, 35, was sentenced in the Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday to six months and two weeks in prison, but will likely only spend one month behind bars.

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He was also fined $1,280. David returned home to Perth from the Australian east coast on March 28 and was directed to spend the next two weeks in quarantine in a hotel, a standard requirement for interstate travellers, the AP reports

But he continually sneaked out and used public transport to visit his girlfriend. He wedged open a fire exit door so that he could come and go without hotel staff seeing him. But he was caught out by security cameras and was taken into custody on April 5.

He pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a direction. Magistrate Elaine Campione told David he “chose to roll the dice with other people’s lives and that was breathtakingly arrogant,” during a state of emergency.

After David spends a month in prison, the balance of his sentence will be suspended for 12 months unless he commits another offence in that time

Police around the country have issued more than 1,000 fines for breaches of lockdown laws, with offences ranging from dozens of people gathering for a street car rally in Brisbane to a group of men eating pizza in a car together in Sydney’s west.