An Auckland Council car has been clamped and seized by the courts because a speeding fine tied to the vehicle went unpaid.
The council’s general manager of corporate support services, Robert Irvine, said the seizure was a result of “a rather unfortunate series of events”.
Irvine said a council staff member got a $110 speeding fine when using the car.
Council policy is for staff members to pay any fines they get, he said.
However, the staffer stopped working for the council and never paid the fine.
“We believed the fine had been paid,” Irvine said,
“But in fact, it had been referred to debt collection and the court process,” he said.
The car was seen clamped in the Fanshawe St carpark on Thursday morning emblazoned with stickers on its windows reading, “this vehicle has been seized by the court”.
Irvine said the issue had been resolved: “[The car] is now back in the council’s possession and being stored in the Fanshawe St carpark temporarily. The stickers have been removed and it is not clamped. All outstanding fines have been cleared.”
Irvine set out the council’s expectation of its staff: “Many of our people must use council vehicles as part of their jobs, visiting sites and properties or managing our facilities and open spaces. We expect anyone driving a council vehicle to follow all road rules, without exception.
“We now directly transfer any fines or infringements to the individual that incurred them,” he said.
Auckland Transport wardens who fined more than two dozen residents for parking on footpaths in Ōrākei were not so quick to nab a council driver for doing the same thing in one of the same streets.
In 2015, Jacqueline Barker was annoyed to find an Auckland Council car parked well over a footpath on Tautari St - less than a week after residents on the same narrow road were ticketed at 2am for leaving their vehicles in similar positions.
Then-Ōrākei Local Board chairwoman, now-Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson said a photograph Barker took of the illegally-parked car showed “a blatant example of do what I say, not what I do.”
But a council spokesman said the agency was unable to take action against the driver of the council car Barker photographed.
“We can’t enforce off a photo - the only people who can enforce it are parking officers,” he said.
He said no car was exempted from parking illegally, except for emergency services vehicles in mitigating circumstances.
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
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