A criminal rapper has stunned social media users by roaming the streets of Sydney during lockdown while eating ice cream in a cone and encouraging people not to follow restrictions.
Spanian, who is popular with Australia’s so-called ‘Eshay’ community, uploaded the video to Instagram late on Sunday night and told his 176,000 followers that lockdown is ‘fun as f***’ because ‘you can walk on the roads like they’re footpaths’.
‘Lockdown’s grouse brother, but you just don’t participate in the lockdown, right?’ the 35-year-old said, while standing in the middle of an empty road in the inner-city suburb of Balmain and dressed in his own merchandise.
Sydneysiders are only allowed to leave their homes to shop for food, exercise outside, go to work, to go to the doctor or for compassionate reasons in an attempt to quash the number of Covid-19 cases in NSW, which grew by 18 cases on Monday.
Pictured: Rapper Spanian with his girlfriend on Saturday evening in St Peters, in Sydney’s inner west, before the city was plunged into lockdown
Spanian claimed he was outside filming the video for ‘compassionate’ reasons, but did not elaborate further.
Anyone caught breaching public health orders can be fined up to $1,000.
Some Instagram users commented and congratulated him on his lax attitude to lockdown, but others told him to collect his fine for breaking the rules.
‘Go get you a fine buddy,’ one user wrote.
‘Hectic, when you getting fined?’ another asked.
Someone else commented: ‘F***ing idiot.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Spanian and NSW Police for comment.
In the video, rapper Spanian (pictured) ate an ice cream while urging his followers not to follow lockdown directives
Rapper Spanian said he was outside for ‘compassionate’ reasons, but did not elaborate further (pictured)
Spanian (pictured with his girlfriend) has been open about his heroin addiction in the past
The rapper previously spoke about his battle with heroin addiction and crime in an interview published on his self-titled YouTube channel.
Spanian said he first got into buprenorphine – a treatment for heroin addicts similar to methadone – while serving time when he was younger.
‘I was one of the first c***ts in Australia on the bupe [buprenorphine]. I was doing bupe in jail and loving life,’ he said. ‘I was high 24/7’.
‘I used to chop $1500-a-day on gear [drugs]. I used to pride myself on that too,’ he said.
He said it wasn’t until he was walking past a mirror in Junee Correctional Centre that he had an epiphany, and quit cold turkey in 2007.
Spanian (pictured) was at Junee Correctional Centre when he realised he needed to turn his life around
Spanian (pictured) said he used to take $1500 worth of drugs per day before he let jail
‘[It happened] out of nowhere. I did a double take and I saw me for what I was. I saw a junkie.
‘I don’t know who gave me that insight, I don’t know if it was God or if I was in the middle of a f**king beneficial psychosis.’
‘I looked at myself and I thought ‘you’re a mess. You are some junkie sitting in a cell with the bottom of the earth in the middle of the bush thinking you’re a mad c**t’.’
Police on Sunday urged the community to ‘abide by the public health orders, and report suspected breaches’ in order to keep the community safe.
Authorities will reassess the need for the lockdown, which is due to end at 11.59pm on July 9, in a week – but Ms Berejiklian said it’s unlikely to be shortened.
‘We could assess after seven days but I want to be very upfront with the public: this will be for all intents and purposes a two-week lockdown,’ she said.
‘I don’t want to take away from that but if there is a dramatic change and the health advice says that we can get out of a lockdown earlier (we may) but I’m not anticipating that.
‘The best advice from Health is that we should brace ourselves for additional cases.’
A police officer at Bondi beach speaks with residence as she enforces Covid compliance (pictured on Sunday) as lockdown began in Sydney
Many were seen walking out in Sydney (pictured at Bondi Beach on Sunday) as the city endured the start of its two week lockdown
Police said a man and woman from Sydney’s eastern suburbs were issued with $1,000 PINs after they failed to comply with Public Health Order in Bondi on Sunday morning.
Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command observed large numbers of people sitting on a grassed area between Campbell Parade and Queen Elizabeth Drive from as early as 10am.
‘Officers spoke to these people and issued them with directions to leave the area, which they complied with,’ police said.
‘A short time later, police found a 35-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman had returned to the beach.’
A man, woman and teenage girl who fled the eastern suburbs for the Hunter Valley were also slapped with fines, after being dobbed in by locals at an equestrian event.