Questions over 120,000 parking tickets' validity

You may have been issued one - but it might not be valid if you got it in Wellington last year. Photo / Doug Sherring

More than 120,000 parking tickets issued in Wellington last year may not be valid, a lawyer says.

The Wellington City Council confirmed to Fairfax Media it issued as many as 120,000 infringement notices between May and October which quoted the Transport Act 1962, despite the act being repealed in May last year.

The council has sought legal advice and maintains the tickets are fine, however lawyer John Miller told the Dominion Post the tickets were "eminently challengeable".

The tickets refer to section 42A of the Transport Act 1962 and section 139 of the Land Transport Act 1998, which refer to the issuing of tickets.

Council spokesman Grahame Armstrong told the Dominion Post the tickets quoting the 1962 law were old stock that the council used up.

He said the purpose of an infringement notice was to "fairly inform" and the reference to the 1962 act relates to the authority to issue the ticket, rather than the alleged breach.

Mr Miller said the tickets should have included the legal reference to the offence.

"To specify an offence under a section which is no longer valid would, in my mind, no longer be valid," he told the Dominion Post.

"By specifically mentioning section 42A ... which is no longer in existence, then they're referring to an offence."

- Herald Online staff