Fury as driver denied legal fight over fine

Rob Jones was told he would receive a warning. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Rob Jones is furious at being deprived of his day in court after Auckland Transport backed down over a parking fine he spent five months disputing.

The West Auckland software consultant is particularly annoyed that there appears no mechanism for claiming costs for his time spent preparing a water-tight defence against the $40 infringement notice.

He suspects he is one of countless victims of a money-grabbing racket.

"This is nothing but a bureaucratic scam and complete abuse of power to force people to pay parking tickets," he said yesterday.

"This is a carefully calculated scheme to make it as difficult as possible to defend yourself. They happily waste as much of a citizen's time as they can to make them give up and pay the fine."

Mr Jones said the injustice of the ticket he received for parking in Morningside Drive in August was such that he decided to oppose it to the hilt, unlike "a thousand others" likely to have paid up, either unwilling or unable to face a minimum of two court appearances.

He said he was ticketed for leaving his brother's car between two no-parking signs, both obscured by trees and one which was pointing away from approaching traffic.

He was unaware of the ticket until his brother received a notice in the mail and in October he wrote a letter complaining about not being able to see the signs, when parking between 9am and 11am on a residential side of the street.

Some time in November, an unobstructed sign was added to the spot where he had parked, and the one pointing the wrong way was turned around to face oncoming traffic.

Yet Auckland Transport wrote back saying it intended prosecuting him and it had enclosed a form to fill out if he intended contesting the decision in court.

Mr Jones said the form was not included with the letter, and it took three weeks of badgering the council-controlled agency by phone and email before two copies arrived in the mail, four days before a deadline to complete and return them.

After spending hours researching tight rules governing the display of signs, he appeared in Auckland District Court last month to plead not guilty, but the transport organisation was not ready to proceed.

A new date was set for Monday, and he said the judge told him he would be free then to seek costs.

But on Saturday, he received a letter from Auckland Transport saying it was withdrawing its prosecution, and that he would receive a warning.

"They are giving me a warning for a matter that shouldn't have been prosecuted in the first place."

Despite that, Mr Jones said he attended the court to seek costs, but was told that because the case had been withdrawn there could be no discussion about these. He said that was outrageous as he would have been liable for costs for failing to turn up to court to plead not guilty.

"There is no accountability taken for any of their [Auckland Transport's] actions and at the end of this, no avenue available to prevent these specious prosecutions," he said.

"I would estimate the [Auckland] council makes millions of dollars each year from this obstructive and unjust process."

He said the case had cost him more than $1000 in lost time.

He remained intent on somehow recovering his costs, which he would be prepared to donate to charity, and holding the agency to account.

Auckland Transport spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said last night it had decided to give Mr Jones "the benefit of the doubt" in deciding to withdraw its case.

She said the court, after discussing the matter on Monday with Mr Jones, indicated it was "happy with all actions as taken by Auckland Transport".