Furious driver slams council ranger for giving him a parking fine 32 MINUTES before his ticket expires – but there’s a reasonable explanation for the penalty
- Driver shared a photo of parking fine issued 32 minutes before his ticket expired
- He parked his Toyota sedan on Wakefield St in Hawthorn on Monday afternoon
- The ticket was purchased at 12.07pm and meant to expire at 1.07pm
- Boroondara City Council revealed the driver’s mistake
A driver has shared his outrage on social media after he was issued a parking fine more than half an hour before his ticket expired – but his story is not actually what it seems.
A photo posted on Reddit showed Boroondara City Council slapped the driver with an $83 fine despite having 32 minutes left at a parking spot on Wakefield St in Hawthorn.
The ticket had been purchased at 12.07pm and was meant to expire at 1.07pm – though he was given a fine at 12.35pm.
A photo posted to Reddit howed Boroondara City Council slapped the driver with an $83 fine despite having 32 minutes left at a parking spot on Wakefield St in Hawthorn, Victoria
‘I was there from 12.07 with a one hour ticket in a one hour space, and I was fined at 12.35 for overstaying the time period. I wasn’t hopping around trying to cheat the system or anything,’ the driver said in a comment.
But a spokesman from Boroondara City Council told Daily Mail Australia parking authority officers actually ‘did the right thing’.
He explained the parking spot is controlled by a two-hour parking restriction which is monitored with chalk marked on the vehicle’s tyre at the time it arrives.
If the vehicle moves, the chalk mark will be disturbed, but the mark remained in place for the driver’s car.
According to city officials, the car was marked at 10.10am, meaning the driver may have purchased a new ticket after the first one expired, but never moved his car.
‘[The parking spot] is controlled by a two-hour parking restriction and paid parking. It’s evident that the person was aware of this because he bought a ticket,’ the spokesperson said.
‘What he has done is paid for his parking, but overstayed his time.’
The council spokesman said that rangers were entitled to fine motorists who bought a ticket but didn’t move their car into a new spot.
The driver had parked his Toyota sedan on Wakefield St, near Swinburne University (pictured)
Users in the Reddit thread suggested it is possible the driver had purchased another parking ticket after an initial one expired and kept his vehicle in the same spot.
When asked by other users if he had moved his car, the driver replied: ‘Nope, just stayed in the one spot.’
‘Parking is limited in Boroondara and what we want to do is enforce this rule because there could have been someone who wanted to park there but couldn’t because the driver overstayed his time,’ the spokesperson said.