Woman slapped with $252 parking fine claims she is ‘innocent’

A WOMAN has slammed a council after she was fined for parking near yellow lines, which she says were painted around her parked car.

A WOMAN has hit back at Brisbane City Council after she was ordered to pay $252 in parking fines, despite claiming she did nothing wrong.

Ethel Chan had been parking her car on Bell St in Kangaroo Point since November 2017 without any issues, according to the Brisbane Times.

The street reportedly had a “no limit” parking sign so there were no restrictions on how long someone could park there for.

READ: Parking rule catching out drivers

On February 16 she parked her car in her usual spot, but when she returned 16 days later on March 2 she discovered a yellow line had been painted on the street, causing her to be fined twice for illegally parking.

Ethel Chan noticed white markings around her car but claims she was not notified the works would be taking place. Picture: Supplied

Ms Chan claims the yellow line was not there when she parked and is sure her car must have been moved in order to paint the line there.

However, Brisbane City Council told the publication that no vehicles were moved while the changes were made, after confirming that the road was painted between February 20 and 25.

“Council undertook line marking for a no-parking area along a section of Bell St, Kangaroo Point at the approach to the Main St intersection, where parked vehicles were causing safety and congestion issues,” the council spokesman said.

He added that the machine used to paint the line is around the size of a double pram, so it could not fit around a car, but still maintained that no cars were moved to “carry out these works”.

Picture of the street before the line was added. Picture: Supplied

On February 21 Ms Chan noticed that there were white chalk markings around her car but said she received no notification that the works were going ahead.

“Innocent people can be charged for offences they have never committed and be fined for $252 in total for just not having a look at their car for five days,” she wrote in a letter to the council.

“Before I stopped and parked my car on Bell St, I observed all the signage and road markings, and there was not any road markings or signs indicating that I cannot park there.”

Ms Chan reportedly disputed the fines but the council refused to waive them.

Originally published as Woman slapped with $252 parking fine claims she is ‘innocent’