Drivers who hand on their all-day parking tickets to other motorists to be penalised

It seems like a charitable act, but you probably don’t realise it is against the law. And one Melbourne council is about to crack down on this common practice.

City of Port Phillip is trying to ensure all drivers pay for a parking ticket.

Grey ghosts are spying on good Samaritans giving away their parking tickets, amid a crackdown on charitable drivers.

Port Phillip council is warning drivers not to pass their parking tickets onto others who have not paid, with inspectors pulling up a number of people.

The practice, being likened to Gold Coast’s meter maids — where bikini-clad women put coins into expired parking meters — is common throughout the City of Port Phillip, especially St Kilda, where much of the area is blanketed in parking meters with hourly rates of $5.40 or $12.90 for an all-day fee.

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Civic-minded drivers across the bayside municipality are getting bang for their buck from parking tickets and passing them on to drivers who have not yet bought one as the ticket was valid for the whole day.

City of Port Phillip is trying to ensure all drivers pay for a parking ticket.

Those who have been caught swapping tickets have been spoken to by parking inspectors and given an opportunity to buy a ticket after being told they were not transferable.

But the council is a lot less forgiving in another parking rort, which sees those fined without a ticket attempt to use someone else’s paid ticket as “proof” when appealing the fine.

In a bid to end the ticket trickery, some other councils now require motorists type their registration number into the machine so it’s printed on the ticket.

More than $14.3 million was put through City of Port Phillip’s parking meters in the past financial year — up by more than $752,000 on the previous year.

During the same time, parking inspectors slapped 166,571 parking fines on windscreens, up 3986.

City of Port Phillip made more than $14.3 million in parking in the past financial year.

Port Phillip Mayor Dick Gross said some drivers took a gamble when not buying their own parking ticket.

“Technically, displaying a valid paid parking ticket passed on by a driver leaving a parking spot is an offence under the Victorian Government’s road rules as it falls within the driver failing to pay for parking category,” Cr Gross said.

“In practice, it is difficult to enforce as an authorised officer must see the ticket being handed over.”

But Cr Gross said those contesting parking fines, while attempting to dupe the system, were less successful.

“Port Phillip Council’s main focus is on ensuring that people who have received a parking fine can’t use a paid parking ticket provided by someone else to contest the fine as this is unfair to those who do the right thing,” he said.

Parking inspectors are cracking down on drivers who try to transfer their parking ticket.

“To prevent this, our paid parking tickets clearly state they must be placed on the dashboard, with the date and time clearly visible from outside the vehicle. A photograph of the dashboard will be taken if an authorised officer doesn’t see a ticket.

“This photograph is then used as evidence if someone contesting a fine produces a ticket that may have been provided afterwards by someone else.”

The PayStay mobile payment app has recently been introduced to Port Phillip to help with payments and to circumvent double dipping motorists.

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@AleksDevic