Sacked parking wardens face criminal charges

Eight Wellington parking wardens who were sacked for not ticketing each other, plus one who resigned, are facing prosecution.

They were suspended in November, and later sacked, and their former employer has laid complaints with police.

Wellington City Council spokesman Simon Beattie said today that ADT Armourguard, which employs the wardens on contract to the council, has forwarded files to police.

He said: "We met with ADT on Thursday and we received quite detailed information from them in regards to the investigations into the misconduct and we were satisfied with the information that we got, but ADT has referred the information to the police."

Mr Beattie said he could not comment on the findings because of possible legal action.

He said all warden employees were interviewed by ADT, and ADT was confident no other staff members were involved in the alleged scam.

Two of the sacked Parkwise staff, who did not want to be named, earlier claimed they were sacked unfairly after three weeks of "covert surveillance" by private investigators hired by the council.

One, a 20-year-old man from Titahi Bay, said they were given no warnings about their conduct before their suspension.

The first they knew of the investigation was when they were individually called into Parkwise's office on November 22, shown photographs of their alleged misconduct and asked for an explanation.

"It came completely out of the blue. They (investigators) had been standing on top of the library, they were parked in cars, they were little old ladies pushing prams, they were everywhere."

A second warden, a 34-year-old mother, said: "It was like a kick in the teeth. If they had warned us and said people are watching you, don't do it again, that would have been fair enough."

Both said they were told during training that "it was up to the warden's discretion" whether or not to ticket cars.

Construction workers and other business owners often had to park illegally for long periods and "you have to have a heart", the second warden said.

She would not ticket other wardens' cars through fear of reprisals, and said she could handle abuse from the public but not from co-workers.

"We have to work with those people. It is not council that has to walk in to the tearooms and get abused, or get a hiding."

They and other sacked wardens had parked alongside their supervisor's car for free in two city streets but had understood it to be a "perk of the job".

- NZPA