Parking fine issued one minute after meter was paid

A Brisbane resident has warned motorists to always accept a parking meter receipt after claiming he was fined, one minute after he had paid for the on-street car space.

A Brisbane resident has warned motorists to always accept a parking meter receipt after claiming he was fined a minute after he had paid for the on-street car space.

Mal Smart is fighting the Brisbane City Council over the $97 fine he was issued in Allenby Street, Spring Hill on November 23 for failing to pay for the parking space.

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The fine was issued at 1.46pm, just 60 seconds after Mr Smart said he was issued with a receipt showing he had paid $9.20 for the car park.

A Brisbane resident has shown the value of always being issued with a parking meter receipt after he was fined one minute after he had allegedly paid for the space.

Mr Smart said that since his daughter was wrongly fined by the Gold Coast City Council a couple of years ago he has always requested a receipt when prompted by a parking meter.

“My daughter didn’t worry about a receipt because the machine couldn’t issue it but when she was fined she couldn’t fight the council because she never had a receipt,” he said.

“A lot of people think they’re doing the right thing and saving a tree by not getting a receipt but without getting the receipt you’re leaving yourself wide open to this problem.

“Now I take a receipt every time.”

Last financial year, the BCC cancelled more than 13,000 parking fines, or more than 35 per day according to a media report.

Human error or faulty meters were among the top five reasons for at least $850,000 in infringement notices being overturned.

Mr Smart said he never saw a parking inspector at the time he used the meter.

“I don’t know where he was hiding. Up a tree or something,” Mr Smart said.

Besides being annoyed at being fined, Mr Smart said he was frustrated that the matter could not have been sorted out over the phone because it was an open and shut case.

Instead, he was directed to follow council procedure and make a written submission to challenge the fine.

“My biggest pain is that the ticket should have been dealt with over the phone but you have to use your time and effort it’s all unnecessary when they have got it wrong,” he said.

“If I didn’t have a receipt I would have had to go to court and ask for the records off the parking meter.

“I’m still waiting to hear back from the council.”

A BCC spokesman did not respond to questions about whether motorists can have faith in the system, if they’re disappointed about the error or if the fine was issued following a parking inspector ‘drive-by’.

“All council parking meters provide residents with the option to print a receipt,” was the only statement a council spokesman provided to several questions put by The Courier-Mail.