BOOKED FOR DRIVING ON THE FOOTPATH: Postman Michael Jackson was fined $330 by police before it was thrown out by a court six months later
Outraged punters have suggested postmen ‘ride on the road and throw letters at the mailbox’ after a cop bizarrely fined a postie for riding his motorbike on the footpath.
But the New South Wales Police Force has insisted their man just enforcing the law when the officer fined postman Mick Jackson $330 last December.
The contractor was delivering letters and parcels in the Central Coast suburb of Mannering Park when an ‘arrogant’ cop booked him.
‘If I can’t ride on the footpath, I can’t do my job,’ Mr Jackson told Daily Mail Australia in an exclusive interview this week.
The bizarre fine sparked a huge community backlash, including a tidal wave of negative comments online and a tirade from KIIS FM host Kyle Sandilands.
‘What an ar*****e… that’s ridiculous,’ Sandilands said of the police officer involved on Wednesday.
‘Posties have been doing this for as long as they’ve been riding bikes.’
Postal delivery drivers are exempt from banning drivers from the footpath provided they follow certain rules
Radio host Kyle Sandilands said: ‘What an ar*****e… that’s ridiculous’
Another furious punter said: ‘They need to do real police work and not fundraising …what a sick world we are living in today’.
Another comment said: ‘Absolutely ridiculous. Shame on that policeman’.
The officer fined Mr Jackson a second time for parking his motorbike out the front of the post office on the footpath.
When Daily Mail Australia approached the police for comment, a spokeswoman initially refused to go on the record to defend the fine.
But a spokeswoman later argued that Mr Jackson had been ‘found guilty’ by a magistrate under section 10 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999.
The magistrate quipped the officer must have been ‘having a bad day’ and Mr Jackson never disputed riding on the footpath.
‘Australia Post has been around for a long time and they ride on the footpath, unfortunately,’ he said. ‘What choice do you have?’
Mr Jackson was wearing his regulation helmet, hi-vis and riding an Australia Post bike at the time (stock photo)
The police representative also said police did not make the rules, simply enforced the regulations devised by the Centre for Road Safety.
The spokeswoman acknowledged postal workers were exempt from laws banning driving on the footpath.
But she said the issue with Mr Jackson had been his lack of formal identification.
Mannering Park Post Office licensee Kristina Budden said the office did not have identity cards for its delivery men.
‘The bike was loaded with mail, you’d think that’d be enough,’ she said.
The police officer (stock image pictured) showed no mercy for the postman, hitting Mr Jackson with several fines
Mr Jackson was fined a second time for parking his bike on the large footpath out the front of the regional post office
The Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) (Road Rules) Regulation 1999 does not specifically say postal delivery workers must carry formal ID.
It exempts ‘postal delivery workers’ from footpath laws on two conditions.
The first is their motorbike must have an engine capacity of no more than 110 millilitres.
The second is that the bike must be ridden at speeds not exceeding 10km/h.