‘Greedy councils’ slammed over ‘ridiculous’ parking fines

Aussies are being slugged “ridiculous” fees on a daily basis – and according to Caleb Bond, it’s all part of a nasty “legal scam”.

Stop telling us how many people are sucked in by illegal online Nigerian prince scams.

I want to know how many people fall victim to one of the only legal scams – parking fines.

The Minns government in New South Wales has finally cracked down on councils issuing ticketless parking fines, banning the practice.

It was a sneaky way of revenue raising because you wouldn’t know you’d been fined until a letter arrived in the mail.

By that time you’d have no hope of challenging the fine because you had taken no evidence from the scene, unlike when you find a ticket on the windscreen.

That’s a good start. But the next order of business should be to review all parking fines.

How can parking your car on the side of the road for 15 minutes longer than some sign allows be a crime worth more than $100?

I was recently fined nearly $130 in Sydney for exactly that.

It was a Friday, I was about to go on holiday to the Warrnambool races for the week, and I thought I’d stop by the pub in Leichhardt for a quiet pint.

By the time I finished that pint, I figured I may as well have another. I’m kicking off the holidays, so why not?

'Parking offences are victimless crimes.' Picture: iStock

And when I returned to the car, there was the fine – issued 15 minutes earlier.

I’d maybe cop $50 for being naughty, but nearly $130 is ridiculous.

Who exactly did I harm? The local economy, because I decided to buy an extra pint?

That fine is worth another 13 pints I could have bought to support the local economy.

Parking offences are victimless crimes. No one is hurt by them. They exist simply to make money for greedy councils.

And if it’s a vehicle registered to a business, the fines can be thousands – not just hundreds – of dollars.

Some councils are now even using CCTV cameras to ping people.

Holdfast Bay Council in Adelaide recently sent a man a $116 fine for stopping on a yellow line.

He said his son had been driving and, before parking the car elsewhere, pulled over for about 10 seconds to let some passengers out near the restaurant they were visiting for dinner.

That was captured on CCTV and a fine arrived in the mail about a week later.

There is seemingly no escape from this injustice.

Seven years ago I received a call from an MP in Adelaide complaining that at least five of his constituents had been stung in one street for parking out the front of their houses.

It turned out that the street, for some unknown reason, had been declared a 24-hour bike lane two years earlier and the residents were completely unaware until a parking inspector swept through one Sunday afternoon and pinged everyone parked on the street for $257.

The residents had presumably been parking there for years and never assumed they were breaking the law – but a sticker licker needing to meet his quota thought he’d found some easy prey.

'How can parking your car on the side of the road for 15 minutes longer than some sign allows be a crime worth more than $100?' Picture: iStock

Caleb Bond says expensive parking fines ‘should be illegal’. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

I made inquiries of the council and they could not tell me how much use, if any, the street had from bikes – but they magically decided to remove its designation as a bike lane.

A year later I asked all Adelaide councils to provide their parking fine data and it turned out that half of expiation notices that were challenged ended up being overturned.

You can’t tell me this isn’t a rort.

We already pay through the nose for rates – some councils have jacked them up nearly 10 per cent per annum in recent years.

Why should they be allowed to squeeze even more money out of us for not hurting anyone?

Anything more than $50 is unjust and should be illegal.

Originally published as ‘Greedy councils’ slammed over ‘ridiculous’ parking fines