Brazen couple who threw an illegal 69-person engagement party and the bride-to-be's high-profile parents are fined $21,800 as three more guests test positive to Covid
A couple who hosted the lockdown engagement party that shocked Melbourne have been fined along with their parents.
Nine of the 69 guests at the get-together to celebrate the upcoming marriage of Michal Franck and Yoni Rubin have now tested positive to the virus.
A video of the event showed dozens of maskless people gathered in Caulfield North in Melbourne's south-east and Mr Rubin joking it was a 'group therapy session'.
The couple and Michal's skin cancer expert father Dr Mark Franck, 52, and his photographer wife Chana, 49, have been fined $5,452 each, Victoria Police said on Thursday.
Michal Franck and Yoni Rubin sparked outrage after hosting an engagement party for 69 people inside a Melbourne home in direct breach of the city's lockdown rules. Nine people who attended have since tested positive to Covid-19
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said attendees had been helping police with their investigation but the handing out of further fines had been delayed.
'That investigation is still ongoing. It's obviously hampered to a degree by the fact that they're in isolation,' he said.
Investigators are planning to organise interviews with the other guests over Zoom to expedite the process, Mr Patton said.
Police intend to fine every adult who attended the engagement party for breaching the chief health officer's directions, to an expected total of more than $350,000.
Video of the party shows the fathers of the Melbourne couple, who are from prominent Jewish families, packed inside a narrow room.
Law student Mr Rubin's father Kalman Rubin, 68, is Victoria Legal Aid chairman and celebrated psychologist, Daily Mail Australia previously revealed.
The couple and their families were bombarded with abuse after Victorian Premier Dan Andrews slammed them for their 'selfish choices' during his Covid press conference on Monday, and have now 'gone to ground' according to family friends.
The party was also condemned by St Kilda Rabbi Ronnie Figdor, who said the couple 'should have known better' and his community was upset and disappointed.
Law student Yoni's father is Kalman Rubin, 68, a Victoria Legal Aid chairman and celebrated psychologist while his mother Timmy (together left, and right at engagement party) runs a ritual bathhouse for married Jewish women
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has launched an investigation, with the power to suspend the licences of negligent medics.
'We are aware that Victoria Police have stated that they intend to take action with respect to individuals who attended the event,' said an APHRA spokesperson.
'We will liaise with them in relation to any registered health practitioners who were present.'
In video footage from the night, guests can be seen crammed into a small room as Yoni Rubin mocked the lockdown laws they were flouting.
The groom-to-be is seen in the clip bragging about the party's status.
The groom-to-be mocked Victoria's lockdown laws, saying: 'Clearly this is legal because this is a group therapy session'. He then pointed out his father, who is a psychologist, as another reveller jeered 'he's a mental health clinician'
'Clearly this is legal because this is a group therapy session,' the part-time teacher jokes, standing next to his bride-to-be as the packed room erupts in laughter.
'That's why my father's here!'
One of the revellers shouts: 'He's a mental health clinician!'
Dr Franck stands nearby leaning against a wall during the wisecracks, before the camera swings round to show Mr Rubin and his wife Tamara, known as Timmy, 65, laughing along with other guests.
Ms Rubin is a prison chaplain and runs Melbourne's main mikvah, a ritual bathhouse for married Jewish women.
The families are said to be distraught over the backlash from the public over the party.
Michal's father Dr Mark Franck , 52, is a skin cancer expert. He laughed as his future son-in-law made a joke about Victoria's lockdown
'We did wrong but the hate coming our way is just so mean,' Ms Rubin begged, according to the Herald Sun.
'Look into your heart and try to find forgiveness.'
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews said the families had made 'selfish, s***ty choices' to host the celebration in lockdown, but slammed anti-Semitic attacks directed at them.
'Anti-Semitism is unacceptable and evil,' he said. 'We have a zero tolerance approach to that in our state.
'There's no sense that anyone needs to be harassing anybody and there is never, ever, a place in Victoria for anti-Semitic behaviour or language, it's simply evil.
'We called out some bad behaviour yesterday, we didn't call out a community, because that would be simply unfair and wrong.'
St Kilda Rabbi Ronnie Figdor admitted the couple 'should have known better'
Rabbi Ronnie Figdor, CEO of the nearby St Kilda Hebrew Congregation, said his offices had also received furious phone calls about the party.
'This unfortunately has a big impact and that's what upsets me and many others,' he said.
'They should have known better.
'Dr Franck is no doubt a very good doctor. but I'm not sure I would ask his advice about Covid.
'We are one big Jewish family, so we're embarrassed when something like this happens, whether we personally know them or not.
'Are we disappointed? Yes. This was a wake up call. People become a bit cavalier because you think it's not going to affect you. Well, good morning, it does.'
He said he always warned people to behave as if their actions could end up on the front page of a newspaper.
'Unfortunately in this case, it is on the front page of the paper,' he said.
'I'm one of these goody two shoes - if I'm told to do something I just do it.