Canberra restaurant fined for breaching COVID-19 restrictions despite repeated warnings

Charcoal Restaurant in Civic has been slapped with a $5000 penalty.

Police claim the restaurant was "brazenly flouting the restrictions" despite repeated warnings.

The restaurant was limited to 12 patrons under current social distancing rules.

When police attended the restaurant on Friday night, officers found 20 diners.

"The restaurant had received a number of prior warnings to comply with the agreed patron limit displayed at the entrance to the venue," police said in the statement.

"Current COVID-19 restrictions permit one person per four square metres for seated spaces."

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the government spent a long time working with businesses to make sure everyone understood the rules.

"Really by this point people don't have any excuse for not understanding what those rules are," she said.

"We were very clear ... if people deliberately breached or had multiple breaches of the rules that police would start taking enforcement action."

Small venues were told they would be able to have a minimum of 25 patrons as of July 10, when the ACT was due to move to stage three of restrictions.

However this was put on hold as coronavirus outbreaks in Victoria escalated.

Ms Stephen-Smith said she understood it was frustrating to small businesses, but the impact would be far greater if community transmission of the virus occurred in the ACT.

"It's up to all of us to do the right thing if we are going to make sure we continue to keep this curve absolutely flat," she said.

Detective Superintendent Jason Kennedy, the commander of ACT Policing's COVID-19 Taskforce, said police were open to "taking stronger enforcement action for intentional and flagrant breaches".

"The majority of people and businesses are doing the right thing despite the disruption to everyday life," he said.

"With everyone doing it tough, it's so disappointing when we see a business putting the broader community at risk by brazenly flouting the restrictions.

"ACT Policing and the ACT government had engaged with this business on a number of occasions to help support it meet the health directions, but our advice was not being listened to or actioned."

Detective Superintendent Kennedy said police would continue working with ACT Health and Access Canberra to ensure businesses were compliant with COVID-19 rules.

The fining of the restaurant comes after police last week charged 41-year-old Simeon Cassar with breaching COVID-19 restrictions by allegedly entering the ACT without the required exemption after travelling from Victoria.

Mr Cassar, who was released on bail on Monday, is yet to enter a plea and faces a fine of $8000 if convicted.