Heavily pregnant woman outraged by 'ruthless' parking ticket

"This is just crappy behaviour," she said on the radio show.

Laura Jackel

2 min read

June 19, 2024 - 3:55PM

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A heavily pregnant woman was left reeling after receiving a parking fine while she used her phone to pay for a ticket online.

The mum-to-be spoke to journalist Jacqui Felgate on 3AW drive time show to share her story and highlight the “crappy behaviour”.

Nine-month pregnant Taylor was rushing to get to her hairdressing appointment on time, when she parked her car in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond.

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"I took a photo of it"

“I hate being late,” Taylor said on air.

“I jumped out of the car and went up to the ticket machine to get the code that PayStay, the app needs, and took a photo of it.”

Taylor says thanks to that photo, she had a record of the exact time she parked her car which was 12.01pm and when she came out of her hairdressing appointment, she saw she’d been given a fine at 12.03pm.

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"A five minute leeway"

This two minute window between parking and being issued with a fine meant it was likely the parking inspector had seen Taylor in her heavily pregnant condition - and still decided to generate a ticket in the short timeframe.

Jacqui Felgate, who hosts the drive time show on 3AW , said there is supposed to be a “five minute leeway” to allow people a chance to pay online, as Taylor was doing.

“I’m lucky enough to have a whole lot of evidence so I’m sure I’ll get off with that but it’s more the point that he must’ve seen me get out of the car, walk up to the machine, note the number and walk into the hairdresser.

“You can’t punch all that information in that time.”

Taylor added that she found it frustrating that was the culture in that area and described the ticket inspector’s behaviour as “crappy” and “opportunistic”.

"A disgrace"

“I would sum this up as a disgrace,” Jackie Felgate surmised.

Shortly after Taylor spoke to the drive time show presenter, Stephen Jolly, a councillor at the City of Yarra, called in to say that he had notified the relevant people at council about Taylor.

“I’m getting a lot more calls from residents in the City of Yarra that they’re getting a more ruthless attitude from parking inspectors,” he added.