Roberta Shaw claimed council officer dobbed her into neighbours, fuelling a bitter dispute

A woman applied for compensation after claiming a council officer dobbed her in for complaining about her neighbours, resulting in them ‘relentlessly bullying’ her, forcing her to move.

A Melbourne woman who claimed she was “relentlessly bullied” by her neighbours after a council worker breached her privacy, further fuelling a nasty dispute, has been unsuccessful with her compensation claim.

The dismissal order was made last week after Roberta Shaw filed a complaint with VCAT alleging that Yarra City Council had breached her privacy.

The complaint related to an incident on September 15, 2020, when Ms Shaw called the council to report that her neighbour had parked over the driveway to her then Albert Place home in breach of parking regulations.

A parking officer went to the dead-end street and placed an infringement notice on the car windscreen, as a woman emerged from the neighbouring property and said the car was hers and she had just returned home from nightshift.

Ms Shaw had given evidence during a hearing that she was standing behind her car and witnessed the officer tell her neighbour, a nurse, that the complaint was made by “the person whose driveway you parked over”.

She claimed the disclosure put further strain on an already fraught relationship with the neighbours and told the tribunal the “intense and distressing vilification of her” intensified following the interaction.

She claimed she was “relentlessly bullied” and the neighbours had voiced “heterophobic, racist and tenant-hating views”.

The woman said the “bullying and disparaging behaviour” was “highly distressing and injurious to her” and did not stop until she moved house in July last year.

A letter from a psychologist, tendered in evidence, said:

“The level of admonishment from the neighbour was very detrimental to Ms Shaw’s psychological wellbeing and she reports ongoing mental trauma from the abuse and a lack of safety in her environment even though she has moved to a new location.”

As part of the claim she was seeking compensation for removal costs to her new home, for psychological support and compensation for distress and trauma at a cost of $10,000.

During the hearing the council’s group manager of the chief executive’s office, Ivan Gilbert, submitted the officer could not have given any information about the complainant as officers were not provided with that information.

The officer himself also gave evidence, saying he had attended the street, found the car subject to the complaint, took photographs and issued an infringement notice when the woman appeared.

When asked why he was there, he told her it was response to a complaint. While he did not identify the complainant, he said he may have explained he was there in regards to a complaint about “a blocking access issue”.

He also gave evidence that as far as he could tell, nobody else witnessed the interaction.

VCAT deputy president Genevieve Nihill accepted the officer didn’t know who the complainant was and therefore could not have disclosed that information.

While noting she was not saying Ms Shaw gave evidence that was “untruthful or intentionally incorrect”, she was not satisfied the council breached the act.

“For this reason, the only order open to me is to dismiss the complaint.”