A Melbourne council has been slammed by a local couple after they were given a parking ticket, despite their car being at home at the time.
For Michael and Caitlin, who have asked us not to use their last name, going on a routine Kmart shop in Camberwell in Melbourne's inner-east has led to an ongoing dispute with the City of Boroondara council.
Caitlin, a stay-at-home mum, said they parked their Porsche SUV at an underground car park with a two-hour limit before heading inside.
Accompanied by her two-year-old and mother-in law, she explained, “We went into Kmart, and we bought a couple of items, we were there for about 40 minutes and then returned to the car to leave the centre and [saw] the parking fine”.
According to the council’s infringement notice, seen by Drive, their vehicle was allegedly observed parking between 10:59am and 1:17pm on February 18, 2025. However, the couple's home security camera shows their SUV was, in fact, parked at home until 12.40pm that day.
The couple contested the fine using their home CCTV camera footage as evidence, but rather than revoke the $99 fine, the council rejected the appeal, claiming the footage wasn't clear enough.
A spokesperson for the City of Boroondara told Drive, “The evidence provided did not meet the standard we expect to overturn a penalty”.
The parking fine is yet to be resolved, with the local council requesting “clearer CCTV footage” that confirms “the vehicle's rego, to support their claim”.
However, screenshots of the original camera footage, also seen by Drive, show the luxury SUV's licence plates are accurate and visible, despite it being a low-resolution image.
Michael, a business owner, said the pair's “trust in local government has been severely eroded” following the incident.
“The public should be able to expect a minimum level of integrity and professionalism from those in a position of authority,” he told Drive.
“It’s incredibly disheartening that despite clear video evidence demonstrating the fine was not valid or even possible to issue, the council has failed – or refused – to properly review and acknowledge it.
“Rather than upholding the basic standards of accountability and fairness that ratepayers deserve, the council’s process seems designed to ignore evidence, dismiss genuine concerns, and protect wrongdoings within their ranks,” he added.
It’s not the first time the City of Boroondara has been scrutinised for issuing fines out of turn.
In an April 6, 2025, Facebook post, one resident warned other community members about a faulty parking meter in Boroondara.
“I parked on Burke Road, Camberwell, the other day. The meter was showing a fault code, so I sent a text to the number on the machine. I received a response that the report had been received. Twenty minutes later, I was issued with a parking fine,” they explained.
The Facebook user claimed they spoke to the local council, which said the onus to rescind an issued fine is up “to the individual to appeal that fine and hope that the report of the issue will be sufficient”.
How to appeal a parking fine
Jimmy Singh from NSW-based firm Criminal Defence Lawyers Australia said unjustified council fines have been on the rise beyond just Victoria.
“Maybe it's the result of the increase in population, increase in road users and rate of congestion in Sydney, but I think these types of incidents are occurring more often than in the past,” he told Drive.
Generally speaking, if you have strong evidence like video that proves your innocence, it's worth reaching out to the council to ask them to internally review the situation, as it's a convenient and inexpensive option.
“Video evidence is the strongest type of evidence, as it shows the situation in real time," Singh explained.
“Any defence lawyer will say to their client, produce the evidence, go into the witness box, and tell them the truth. The witness will then say, 'That's my home, this is the footage taken from my home. I gave this to my defence lawyers, we provided a copy to the council'.
“'That's my car, there's my registration plate.' That's all they need to produce. Unless the [prosecuting] counsellor has clear evidence that clearly refutes the evidence, the court has no option but to accept [the defence evidence]."
If you're in the same situation as Michael and Caitlin, where your local council has failed to revoke the fine despite clear evidence, the next best step is to potentially pursue legal action.
However, depending on your situation, Singh advised it's worth weighing up the pros and cons as legal action can be a costly and time-consuming process.
“It depends on your circumstances [and] how much it means to you. If the consequences of incurring this fine are going to result in a suspension and demerit points, and you have a job that predominantly relies on your licence, the only option you have other than paying the fine is to dispute it in court," he said.
“It can be an expensive process because if you want to use a traffic defence lawyer like us, we'll go through the entire [court] process of advising you, preparing and attending the hearing for traffic offences.”
Why are some councils pursuing invalid fines?
When asked what could prompt council parking officers to inaccurately fine drivers, the defence lawyer explained that a lack of education is a key contributor.
“I think it starts at the root of the problem. I think parking officers need to be better educated in what will and won't hold up in court," he said.
“If they have evidence [of the crime] that's fine, but when further evidence is submitted that shows the [driver] is innocent, then that needs to be carefully looked at by a council department that is well educated and has enough resources to say 'look fair enough, what's fair is fair'.”
Additionally, Singh explained some council parking inspectors are prompted by “the quotas they have to meet, and I think that's a motivation to push it, to get it over the line so they meet those [targets]”.
Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.
