Thought I'd share a funny situation that happened to me recently. I received a parking fine in the mail at my parents house from Merri-Bek Council in Melbourne for stopping in a clearway zone. First thing I noticed was that the rego was for a Ford Territory I sold in Perth when I moved to WA about 10 years ago (traded in to a stealership in Perth with VIC rego… I know, I was younger then!). I have moved around a bit since then so it is chance that my parents are still at the same property. Anyway, I checked the photos, expecting to see the same rego on a cloned plate or something but no, the rego is completely different.
The rego on my old Territory was 1FZ ###. The rego on the banged up old Corolla in the photo was 1ZF ###. The last three characters were the same on both vehicles.
So not only did I receive a fine for a car I no longer own, and haven't for 10 years, but the bloody council ranger can't even enter the rego properly into their computer. I would have thought there would be a check in place to prevent this. Talk about fat finger syndrome!
It was all sorted with a phone call and I received an apology letter the next week saying the fine had been rescinded. It was lucky though, that my parents are still at the same address and able to pass the fine onto me. I imagine had I not received the fine for one reason or another that my drivers licence could have been affected or the Sheriff could have become involved in the worst case scenario.
The fine was received a few days after the 1st April so I had a laugh with the council admin officer on the phone about it being a good potential April Fools joke. We both saw the humour in the stuff up and the timing. It was not a joke, however.
Having worked in local government myself for the majority of the past 10 years I can see how clerical errors occur. It is another thing for errors to occur in the Local Laws and Enforcement section though, where an error can cause major repercussions for people. I guess the takeaway from this post is the double check any fine you receive and make sure it was actually you as errors do occur.
tl;dr
I received a parking fine from a council for a car I sold 10 years ago and the fine photos showed a completely different car and rego to that listed on the fine.
Probably another OzBargainer. Will wait for their post next week about how to get out of a parking fine that has taken 4 weeks for them to receive.