Parking Ticket Incident

[Beckie]

Hey all,
Thought I'd put my current dilemma out to everyone to see if anyone has any ideas on how I can handle this situation.

Basically I have received a letter in the mail yesterday saying that I have not paid a parking ticket from June.
To my knowledge, I never received a ticket on my car, and could not remember being parked in the area where the infringment occured at that specific time.

I did a bit more thinking and research - and at that particular time and day, it was my second day at my new job and I was at work. To my knowledge, my car was parked at a train station. When I called up to query the ticket this morning, I was told that my tyres had been marked at 11.41am and that my car had still not moved at 2.38pm. I would have been at work at this time and have timesheets to prove it.
Second strange thing is the location - this happened at Spring Hill apparantly, where I work in the centre of the CBD on Adelaide Street. There is no reason that I would have been parked in this street, nor have I heard of it before or even realised it existed.
The only other people who have access to my car keys are my parents - and they did not drive my car that day either, as it was parked at the train station and I didn't pick it up until approx 5.30pm. I had parked it there at approx 7.48am and, as I'm pedantic about making sure my car is always locked, checked it several times.
I now have to prove that it wasn't my car parked in the location, any ideas or comments anyone? I'm extremely confused as to how this could have happened.

I know that it's only a parking ticket, and I could just pay it and make it go away, but its the fact that someone else may have had access to my car, and also I refuse to pay for something that I did not do wrong. Instead now I'm having to defend my actions and prove my innocence when I wasn't even in the wrong in the first place.

[CHiMPY]

I have never had to fight a parking ticket, but it seems to me the first thing to do is to ask for a copy of the original infringement.

There may be something on there that instantly tells you it is not your car.

I know with speeding fines etc they have to write your car make/model etc so if it says a black prosche and you drive a red mini then there is no way it could have been your car...

[LordWorm]

Hey all,
Thought I'd put my current dilemma out to everyone to see if anyone has any ideas on how I can handle this situation.

Basically I have received a letter in the mail yesterday saying that I have not paid a parking ticket from June.
To my knowledge, I never received a ticket on my car, and could not remember being parked in the area where the infringment occured at that specific time.

I did a bit more thinking and research - and at that particular time and day, it was my second day at my new job and I was at work. To my knowledge, my car was parked at a train station. When I called up to query the ticket this morning, I was told that my tyres had been marked at 11.41am and that my car had still not moved at 2.38pm. I would have been at work at this time and have timesheets to prove it.
Second strange thing is the location - this happened at Spring Hill apparantly, where I work in the centre of the CBD on Adelaide Street. There is no reason that I would have been parked in this street, nor have I heard of it before or even realised it existed.
The only other people who have access to my car keys are my parents - and they did not drive my car that day either, as it was parked at the train station and I didn't pick it up until approx 5.30pm. I had parked it there at approx 7.48am and, as I'm pedantic about making sure my car is always locked, checked it several times.
I now have to prove that it wasn't my car parked in the location, any ideas or comments anyone? I'm extremely confused as to how this could have happened.

I know that it's only a parking ticket, and I could just pay it and make it go away, but its the fact that someone else may have had access to my car, and also I refuse to pay for something that I did not do wrong. Instead now I'm having to defend my actions and prove my innocence when I wasn't even in the wrong in the first place.
Stat Dec perhaps?

[Beckie]

mm. well when I phoned up this morning they told me over the phone they had all the correct details, maybe I should get them to fax a copy of it to me or post the original out in the post.

[Tom]

get them to send the infringement out to you?

maybe the ticketer had bad hand writing and someone misread it or something? could have just been something as simple as that that got you into trouble..

[Beckie]

I hope it's somethign like that.
Could have been another silver astra classic i suppose, and they've just mucked up the rego plates.... it's not like it's an uncommon car...
I'll give them another call and tell them I want to see the original infringement notice.

[skippy]

Good luck in you decidedly uphill battle

your where abouts on the day does not really mean much at all as you could of lent it to anyone,

hmmm ideas hey,

Ask if they did any other checks on the parking lot that day? As you car should have been there the whole.day and probably got more than one fine.

Ask if they have a photo of the car as sometimes they do that,

Does the ticket offer a description of the car, does one exist anywhere, if not ask the question of what would happen if the inspector mistook a 1 for a 7 in the number plate.

have a look at that case in the news lately of the judge who said his dead friend was driving his car when it got fined for speeding, currently being disputed I am sure he will get off lightly.



Failing all that ask for a payment plan as you did not get the actuall notice and this is the first you have heard of it and you can not really afford it in one go being a young innocent sweet unfortunate “victim” in all this.




Finally Have a long hard look at your boyfriend, Brother, Sister etc.……..

[Beckie]

hmm thanks for that skippy...
In relation to other checks on the carpark - it was a street park apparantly, which kind of strengthens my argument a little bit...
little secret - I can't street park! its the one thing I failed on my licence... I have been attempting lately in quiet areas so that I can get better at it, but in the city, well I get flustered in the traffic most days anyway and I have been known to work myself into panic attacks and insane stress levels thanks to city traffic, i avoid parking on street parks in the city at all costs (There, it's out!)
In relation to my boyfriend/Brother/Sister... my sister would have been 15 at the time and my other sister is 13 and my brother is 8...if any of them drove the car i think i'm astonished it's back in one piece :)
I've already quizzed my mum and dad as to whether they may have borrowed it for any reason, but they can't recall doing so...
my boyfriend at the time was also at work... plus he didn't have access to my car keys, i'm very particular about my baby and who drives her! even if she is just a stock astra... she's still my baby! I think he drove it once, maybe twice... but I was in the car both times...
I'm in the process of trying to get my hands on some video surveillance for the train station where i was parked...if I can get that and prove my car was there the entire day...
anyway, still battling - will keep you posted,
Thanks for your input everyone!

[ruff-idle]

The same thing described by Tom happened to my family.

My Dad's car was parked in our driveway at our home on the day the ticket was issued at a suburb 40 minutes away. Everyone was at work. The car had not been tampered with at all.

On a copy of the infringement, the rego number written down was suspect. The parking officer obviously had trouble with their own penmanship as the number had been written over a couple of times. It plain to see that the officer wrote the wrong number down.

Everyone in our household got signed letters from their employers stating we were at our respective work addresses (all across the city from the infringement site) at the time the car was allegedly supposed to be at this particular spot.

We considered paying the $170 fine, but what for? We were innocent! We were going to go to court, but were told that if we lost not only were we going to have to pay the fine but the council's legal costs as well. This amounted to hundreds more in fees.

We approached the council directly instead, by phone and letter, and found that they were quite reasonable when we gave them the evidence.

The whole thing was pretty stressful, as we were innocent so it was a great relief when the council absolved the fine.

Try going directly to someone at council who deals directly with parking infringements.

Good luck!

[Cosmo Dude]

Write a letter to the council.

Start it something like;

Without Prejudice

Regards parking infringment No.#######/### Dated ##/##/2006

Dear Sir/Mam,
I believe that the above infrigment has been acredited to my vehicle in error. On the day the infringment was issued my vehicle was not in the area indicated.
I work in Adelaide St in the city centre and have time sheets and many witnesses who can prove that I was in attendance from ##:##am until ##:##pm. Due to my work location I park at ????? station and commute.

Pad it out, fix the spelling errors, don't mention who else may have keys or access to the vehicle or explicit details of your vehicle. The person who earned the infringement probably looked at the rego number, noticed the error and threw it out (I would).

If you like add something like;
Please send me a copy of the original infringement as I am eager to settle this matter.

Good luck

[LYNX]

this might sound pretty stupid but could it be possible someone swapped number plates than swapped them back ? i know its a far out thing but hey there's alot of strange people out there :confused:

[Cosmo Dude]

this might sound pretty stupid but could it be possible someone swapped number plates than swapped them back ? i know its a far out thing but hey there's alot of strange people out there :confused:
More likely to be a fumble fingers thing. Most dealerships get a bunch of plates at a time. If the last few numbers are stuffed up then it's most likely the same make and could be the same model.
A friend had to prove that his white VT wagon was not the green VT sedan cought speeding in the picture (he was probably speeding elsewhere :p ).

[boostedbatman]

I got out of a parking infringement with my Jag outside my house because 40mm of tyre was on the footpath
when the infringement reminder was sent (I got a reminder because I was never going to pay for THAT) The offence was a list of details which didn't EXACTLY specify what the infringement was EXACTLY as they have a number of occurances separated by ' / ' so they can just send the same document out to many offences without writing specific letters
When all of the offences were worked out , I 'could' have performed one of a possible 32 different offences so I asked them to be more specific but their computer system had set it up as the offence/s I was sent
After a number of nasty phonecalls from myself to them to bloody make themselves clear as to what I had DEFINATELY done thye gave up because they COULDN'T be exactly specific to the details
Get the infringement sent to you..............this is a must
Then study it and you WILL find loopholes
Its easier to pay but its damn well a lot of fun to stick it right up those revenue rasing terds
Best $75 or so that I never spent
And I have a wonderful story to tell at parties now :D

[Red Frog]

ah parking ticket stories ;) gotta love em! i've got a few, but like pete, reserve them for parties too :D

beckie, every1 is right. you MUST get the infringment notice. and it is your legal right to have it, as you need evidence of the infringement occuring. video footage of your car in the station carpark would be helpful too. just don't let the bastards overrule you. also, get ur local MP involved. we've done this a few times, and it's helped, especially when it's involved with the council, as they have quite a powerful hand in these matters.

[platypus]

only had one in my life.... $25 from QUT..... but the parking spot was so close to RBWH!!!

[twilightprotege]

what the parking ticket w@nks do now is not even put a ticket on your car. they see your car stopped - even if it's to drop someone off or pick someone up - and print out the ticket and throw it in the bin. you're long gone by the time the ticket has finished being printed and you never know until you get that sort of reminder in the mail. it's happened to me twice. first time i saw the guy walk up to the car with his ticket thing so i took off. a while later, letter in the mail asking me to pay it and the extra $10 they charge. yay. second time a guy came up to me and said i'm not supposed to park there (as the ex-gf was getting in my car) and i said ok thanks mate and took off. again, a while later, another letter with the extra charge.

yay.

i reckon they should mandate that all new buildings in the city have a drop off area put made into the building so people can drop off and pick up family and friends. something like what my work has (the round scumcorp building). no stopping traffic, no tickets, safe for passengers. it would be so easy to do.

[chicaboo]

Parking provisions are made on Residential buildings, but commercial buildings as you find in the city do not require an on-street dropoff/pickup service, since coucil controls the street parking. This is a regulation that will never be enforced by council on commercial buildings in the city. Council are also reclaiming quite a few parking spots along Lutwyche/Gympie Road, which will affect residential premesis, that will be interesting!