On Tuesday it was revealed that five of the six men who had been escorted from Orange to Leppington and fined last week had again breached COVID rules in Sydney by not self-isolating. They were each fined $5000.

When asked what would happen if they broke the rules for a third time, Assistant Commissioner Geoff McKechnie of NSW Police said: "If they breach it in Western region they'll be arrested and charged. I can't emphasis that strongly enough.

"What happens to them into the future, if it's not in Western region it's out of my span of control but I can tell them if they come back out here and they're detected they will certainly be down at the police station in the dock."

Asked if he thinks that people from Greater Sydney may not take COVID as seriously in regional and rural towns, he added: "We've been talking for a while about people who are engaging with tradespeople from the metro area and bringing them into regional NSW and I've asked people before to consider the implications of that and what that means.

"Unless this work is so super urgent, really I'd urge people to consider who they are engaging at the minute for work and where they are going to be in the community, what community they're going to be in and are they going to behave.

"When you start dealing with people you can't control their behaviour sometimes and you're really putting yourself, your workplaces and your community at risk by engaging tradesmen like the ones we're talking about who perhaps just won't take notice of the orders."

He also said that smaller communities in the west are obeying the COVID rules better than their larger counterparts.

"I think our small towns seem to be more concerned and seem to be taking more notice. I think we're starting to get a handle on a few of these places by working together," he said.

"When you still see the cases were' getting in places like Dubbo, like Bathurst in particular it's obviously concerning.

"It was travelling between towns that started this spread and we just can't see that happening into the future, so please, stop moving about if that's what you're doing."

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