I can tell you that the parking wardens in England make those in New Zealand with the power to issue tickets almost saint-like in comparison.
Here are a few examples from appealnow.com of what the British ticket Nazis will stoop to in order to get their quota.
Bus driver Chris O'Mahony believed he was going about his daily business when he picked up passengers at a bus stop. But a parking warden saw it otherwise. He and his passengers were gobsmacked when the attendant slapped a penalty notice equivalent to $80 on the bus and walked off.
O'Mahony says the warden claimed he was booked for parking in a restricted area. "I said: 'Restricted to whom?'
"He said: 'Buses'." The ticket was eventually cancelled.
One driving instructor told of how he received a CCTV parking ticket after a learner driver stalled doing a three-point turn.
The pupil couldn't restart the car so the instructor was issued with a ticket for parking more than 50cm from the kerb. The ticket was eventually cancelled.
While I wouldn't recommend it as a foolproof way of getting out of a ticket, the following story might provide some hope by using reverse psychology with parking wardens.
My wife and I had been invited to a wedding and, as you do, I had ordered some flowers from the florist a few days before the weekend.
An hour or so before we were to leave I said I would go and pick up the flowers so we could head straight to the church.
I arrived in the town where we lived mid-morning and parked the car outside the florist, albeit in a no parking zone, thinking I'd be a few moments as I had already ordered and paid for the flowers.
As I leapt out of the car and stepped into the shop I heard this high-pitched, shrew-like voice telling me I couldn't park there.
I responded that I did indeed know I couldn't park right outside the shop, but I was just picking up some flowers and would be gone in less than a minute.
Well, that wasn't good enough for little Miss Parking Warden. She started remonstrating about traffic flow and so on and told me to park on the other side of the road. I tried to explain that by the time I had done that I could pick up the flowers and be off home.
That comment didn't wash at all. I was told if I didn't move the car I would get a ticket.
By this stage I'd had enough of the chatter and I said I didn't care if she gave me a ticket and she should stop blathering on and just write out the bloody ticket.
I spun on my heels and started to walk into the shop.
The warden followed me in and told me I couldn't tell her when, and when not, to issue a ticket and it was her prerogative as to whom she gave it to.
I turned around and told her I didn't care either way, but could she just please leave me alone and get on with her job.
Her next comment was that she'd call the police, to which I asked for what?
In the meantime, the florist was handing over my flowers and I was on my way out the door.
My uniformed shadow was still with me, saying that when she called the police I would be in so much trouble that it would be better to just move the car.
As I put the flowers in the back seat, I said I was about to move the car, that I had what I wanted, and if she wanted to write the ticket to do it , as I was about to leave, or call the police, but that I was going either way.
As I climbed into the car she continued to admonish me for parking in a restricted area but then went on to say I was lucky she was going to let me off this time.
Not wanting to seem churlish, I thanked her for her leniency and suggested that her act of perceived kindness might one day be returned twofold.
Such an approach to an impending ticket may not be the complete get-out-jail-free-card but certainly could be worth a try.
Good luck.
