Home Australia Mark briefly left his ute on the side of the road to open the gate on his driveway… 10 days later he received a $320 shock in his letterbox

Mark briefly left his ute on the side of the road to open the gate on his driveway… 10 days later he received a $320 shock in his letterbox

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Mark Fricker gets out of his vehicle to open the front door and enter his property, but a city hall's mobile camera captured him stopping in a bus zone and fined him $320.
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A trader has vowed to take a council to court after claiming he was unfairly fined $320 for temporarily parking his car.

Mark Fricker was fined after briefly parking in a bus zone outside his home in Newcastle, on the New South Wales north coast, in September.

Fricker claims he was simply getting out of his ute to open his driveway gate so he could drive his car in.

The two left wheels of the ute were on the nature strip while the right wheels were on the shoulder, which was technically in the bus zone.

Fricker didn’t think about it until a ticket arrived in the mail 10 days later.

The penalty notice was generated by the council’s mobile number plate recognition technology, which are cameras connected to council cars that patrol the streets to monitor parking offences.

Fricker argued that if a game warden had been present, common sense would have prevailed and he would not have been fined.

“If it had been a person and not a car, they wouldn’t have issued the fine,” Mr. Fricker said.

‘If a ranger had seen me park there, get out, open the door and put the car in, he wouldn’t have worried.

Mark Fricker gets out of his vehicle to open the front door and enter his property, but a city hall’s mobile camera captured him stopping in a bus zone and fined him $320.

“He could see that I am not a threat or danger to a bus, or to passengers getting on or off, so it would not have happened.”

Newcastle City Council had no comment on the matter and Fricker will fight the fine in court next month.

Just two months after Mr. Fricker was fined, the Minns government passed laws decreeing that all fines imposed by inspectors must be paid on the spot with a ticket left on the vehicle and a photograph taken of the violation, unless it is not safe to do so. so.

NSW Finance Minister Courtney Houssos said last year that if councils were not willing to offer a “common sense solution” and end fine-free fines, the government would intervene.

“The current implementation of the fine-free parking system has eroded confidence in the parking fine system,” Minister Houssos said.

“Providing immediate notification to drivers is the right thing to do.”

Motoring group NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said the no-fine fines had “robbed” motorists.

“No-ticket parking leaves motorists in the dark and deprives them of the opportunity to challenge their ticket if they believe they have a legitimate case,” Mr Khoury said.

“The NRMA has been against this approach from day one.”

Fine-free parking fines generated huge profits for councils.

There was a 49 per cent increase in non-penalty parking fines issued in New South Wales during the 2023-24 financial year, raising $158 million for councils.

This figure increased 54 percent compared to the previous year.

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