AN Aussie driver who was slapped with £200 worth of parking fines has been told he will not have to pay a penny.
The driver, from Adelaide, was left dumbfounded after receiving a letter through the post that demanded he’d have to fork out the eye-watering fee.
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The Traffic Monitoring Services (TMS), which patrols Secure Parking sites, had fined him $396 (£212) on November 27.
The letter stated the driver had breached parking conditions four times with each offence worth $77 (£41).
TMS had also added an $88 (£47) fee for the additional cost of chasing the debt and demanded the total be paid within 14 days.
The driver was told that if he failed to comply, then the company’s lawyers would pursue “further action”.
But with the notice failing to include any specific dates or locations where the violations were committed, the Aussie was completely left in the dark as to when the offences even occurred.
Nonetheless, the letter told him to “pay immediately to avoid debt collection referral”
The notice read: “A vehicle registered in your name has parked in a car park monitored by Traffic Monitoring Services (TMS) and has been in breach of the terms and conditions of that car park.
“We now have four breaches recorded for this registration. As a consequence, on each occasion, individual notices were affixed to that vehicle.
“The notices set out the nature of the breach, which combined, requires payment of the sum of $308.”
The Adelaide driver immediately contacted TMS and was bewildered when they sent back photos showing his old car which he’d sold in 2022, prior to the apparent infringements.
Even if the his current car had been depicted in the photos, lawyers say TMS’ “fines” are a grey area of the law.
Adelaide barrister Andrew Williams, of Williams Legal, said the contracts and the consent given to parking on private property “would not appear to have any lawful effect”.
Mr Williams told Yahoo News Australia that he had “never seen any of these things prosecuted.”
“Private car parks don’t have a force of law, so in a sense when you park in a car park, it’s an agreement between you and the car park owner,” he added.
“So, it’s for them to enforce any parking contract between you.”
However, people should not be encouraged to avoid paying them as there is no guarantee you’ll get away with it.
Mr Williams also stated that if the breach notice was taken to court, it would only be dealt with in a civil court, not criminal.
That’s because only the council and police have the authority to issue proper fines.
“It’s like writing to someone parking on your front lawn and saying, “I’m charging you $300 to park there. If you don’t pay, it will go up to $400”,’ Mr Williams said.
It comes after a mum was left furious at receiving a £100 fine for parking on her own driveway.
Gold Coast City officers alleged that Megan Pass was blocking other vehicles from accessing council land at her Pimpana property in Australia.
And in the UK, a man who said he received 11 fines in 17 days claims he is being “harassed” by his local council.
Graham Clarke, 82, was allegedly slapped with a total of 14 fines for driving into a bus lane while visiting Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
