Melbourne councils to repay $20 million in parking fines
More than 200,000 parking fines are set to be paid back after hefty penalties issued by three Melbourne councils were found to potentially be illegal. These are the municipalities that will refund almost $20 million to motorists.
VIC News
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Three Melbourne councils will refund almost $20 million in parking fines after the Victorian Ombudsman found they may have acted illegally when the charges were contested by motorists.
The fines in question were issued by Port Phillip, Stonnington and Glen Eira over a decade to 2017, covering popular areas including St Kilda and the Chapel St shopping precinct.
Port Phillip will refund $8.8 million from more than 87,000 affected fines, with 81,000 fines totalling $6.9 million identified in Stonnington and 36,000 fines worth $3.67 million to be paid back by Glen Eira.
Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass said the councils — which disagreed with her findings but agreed to pay back the money anyway — acted “contrary to law” by outsourcing reviews of the fines to a private contractor.
“The legal issues have not been tested in court, so I cannot definitely determine the lawfulness of the councils’ actions,” Ms Glass said.
“But I can express my opinion, which is that the three councils acted contrary to law.”
The investigation found one council officer took one minute to approve 107 recommendations from a contractor on 107 reviews sought by motorists.
“The suggestion that council officers were making genuine decisions on the evidence was simply not credible,” Ms Glass said.
“It is also apparent that none of the three councils disclosed who was making internal review decisions, each of them providing a similar squiggle by an anonymous officer.”
Monash and Kingston councils announced last year that they would repay 46,000 fines impacted by similar issues.
“At least five councils outsourced internal reviews of parking fines to a private contractor over a period of 10 years. Two councils publicly acknowledged legal doubts and refunded affected motorists,” Ms Glass said.
“Three other councils asserted their practices were lawful, with a generic signature on review letters disguising the identity of their decision makers.”
“While it was reasonable for these councils to seek legal advice, they failed to ensure transparency and accountability in their decision making.”
In response to the review, Glen Eira Council said the issue had been “vexed by multiple and conflicting legal opinions” and “unclear communications” from the state government.
“We … respectfully suggest that it may be appropriate for the Ombudsman to probe this issue further,” it said.
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Port Phillip said it believed it had “at all times acted lawfully”, while Stonnington said it rejected the Ombudsman’s position “entirely”.
Parking Australia chief Stuart Norman said he understood the position taken by the Ombudsman, but that it was “disappointing that councils have to refund these fines”.
More to come