Man takes Whitehorse Council to Supreme Court over parking ticket but is accused of wasting court’s time

A MAN who dragged a Melbourne council to the Supreme Court in a failed attempt to beat a $93 parking fine has cost the council $43,000 in legal fees.

A MAN who dragged Whitehorse Council to the Supreme Court over a parking ticket has been slammed by a judge for wasting the court’s time.

Andrew Crowther waited nine months for his big day in the Supreme Court, only to be told off for trying to abuse the judicial processes in his campaign to challenge a parking fine.

His campaign to dodge the $93 parking fine has cost the council $43,000 for multiple court hearings, a scathing Justice Zammit said.

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Mr Crowther’s crusade began more than a year ago when he received the fine for parking his six-tonne motorhome in a disabled parking bay in Nunawading in May 2017.

Local laws officers stated he had violated a road rule that does not allow drivers of a heavy vehicle to park along a road in a built-up area for more than an hour — unless permitted by the council.

The case went before the Supreme Court in April.

Mr Crowther argued the ticket was invalid because his vehicle displayed a disabled parking permit, which should have constituted ‘permission’ from the council to park there.

When the council would not withdraw the fine, saying the permit did not override the road rule, Mr Crowther said it would to “make (his) day” to take the issue to the Magistrates’ Court. He simultaneously called for a judicial review of the road rule in the Supreme Court, saying the issue was a matter of its interpretation.

Justice Zammit last month handed down his ruling from the Supreme Court hearing in April, dismissing Mr Crowther’s appeal as an attempt “to abuse the processes of (the) Court”.

The sage over a $93 parking fine has cost Whitehorse Council about $43,000. Picture: Zak Simmonds

“The reality is that the appellant has doggedly sought to avoid his prosecution in the Magistrates’ Court by initiating civil proceedings in this Court,” Justice Zammit said.

“His attempt to attract this court’s supervisory jurisdiction is tantamount to an abuse of process.”

The judge said the Supreme Court had received an increasing number of “ill-founded” applications for judicial review in recent years, which should be “strenuously disapproved” of.

The council’s acting general manager corporate services Mark Ackland said: “These proceedings have so far cost the council about $43,000.”

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