Thousands of Victorian motorists who challenged parking fines set for refunds

Thousands of motorists in one Australian state who challenged their parking fines are set to be refunded, with more urged to come forward.

More than 17,000 motorists may be set to have their parking fines overturned after Victoria’s integrity watchdog uncovered more evidence of the fine review process being outsourced to private contractors.

A further five councils, a university and an agency were found to have outsourced some internal reviews of parking fines to private contractors, contrary to law, Ombudsman Deborah Glass said on Wednesday.

The councils of Geelong, Mildura, Bass Coast, Frankston, Hume and Monash University and Parks Victoria will now set up refund schemes following Ms Glass’s latest investigation.

“Tens of thousands of people have been affected by this saga, and I am pleased that all agencies concerned have now agreed to set up refund schemes,” Ms Glass said.

“Fines are part of life and if people do the wrong thing they should be fined – but it needs to be done properly, fairly and in accordance with legislation.”

Thousands of parking fines are set to be refunded. Photo: Ian Currie

Ms Glass exposed the practice of outsourcing parking fine reviews to private contractors in her report in February last year.

It found that for about a decade, affected councils allowed an external contractor to make review decisions.

Ms Glass found such actions appeared to have been contrary to law.

“Every so often, I table a report suspecting what we discovered during our investigation is just the tip of the iceberg – this has again proven to be the case,” she said.

Since the initial report, three councils – Glen Eira, Stonnington and Port Phillip – set up refund schemes to refund potentially more than 204,000 fines.

Monash and Kingston councils already announced plans to refund about 46,000 fines, reviewed between 2006-2016, before that report’s release.

A dozen councils and agencies have been caught up in the saga. Photo: Jason Edwards

Ms Glass’s latest finding takes the number of councils and agencies outsourcing some fines review decisions to private contractors to 12 and the number of fines potentially affected to more than 268,000.

She urged anyone who has challenged the legitimacy or fairness of fines received during the last decade from any of those councils to contact them and see if they’re eligible for a refund.

Agencies questioned following the probe have now agreed to review all fines internally and set up repayment schemes, Ms Glass said.

Victoria’s justice department is now checking outsourcing practices at other enforcement agencies to ensure they comply with the law.

Originally published as Thousands of Victorian motorists who challenged parking fines set for refunds