Parked car racks up thousands in fines

A heavily ticketed Green Honda Integra parked on Pakenham Street East. Photo / Michael Craig

A car is slowly racking up thousands of dollars worth of fines as it sits on the side of an Auckland street.

The apparently abandoned green Honda Integra has been sitting on Pakenham St East, near the Viaduct in Auckland, since at least July 7 when it received its first ticket.

Since then parking wardens have continued to lather the vehicle in tickets - yesterday it had 24 gathered over the past five weeks.

The vehicle's registration and warrant of fitness have both expired.

An Auckland man who came across the car on Sunday said he was so curious as to what the vehicle's owner owed Auckland Transport (AT) he added all the tickets up, arriving at a grand total of $3400.

Although there doesn't appear to be anything untoward left in the vehicle, the incident is similar to that of a Honda Domani which was abandoned in a Pt Chevalier shopping carpark in June last year.

In that case, shoppers complained about the car due to the rotting packs of meat left on the back seat. It got so bad, flies began crawling over it and there was an awful stench.

However, in this case, AT hadn't received any complaints.

The Integra has been issued with 10 expired registration offences, seven expired warrant of fitness offences and seven failing to display valid pay and display receipt offences.

Photo / Michael Craig

An AT spokesman said the vehicle was still there as the offences were infringement only and didn't require it to be towed.

By its policy, AT has to leave the vehicle 31 days before towing it. The 31-day period expires today but AT now has seven days to find the owner.

"We have a legal process to complete, based on the Motor Vehicle Registry details, the last registered owner's last address is in Grafton and we have a legal obligation to try to track down that owner."

If AT does end up towing the car, ratepayers will be left to foot the bill of the $95 tow fee and $20 per day storage costs.

"We have a legal obligation and a detailed process to follow. If we cannot source the last registered owner, we will commence a process to remove and dispose of the vehicle. If Auckland Transport tows the vehicle, AT will pay for the cost of the tow and storage until it's disposed of."