One inner-city Melbourne council has admitted it overcharged 250,000 parking fines between July 1, 2013, and June 11, 2025, with the total value equating to $12 million.
Due to an “administrative error” in 2013, the Merri-bek City Council stated that no resolution was in place that would have allowed officers to charge the full 0.5 penalty unit value. Without the appropriate system, the affected parking fines were charged 0.2 penalty units.
The local road authority, which governs a range of inner-city Melbourne suburbs including Brunswick, Brunswick West, Brunswick East, as well as Coburg and Coburg North, said it will deploy a refund scheme for 12 months, with the rebate set to open in early July 2025.
Depending on the year the fine was issued, Merri-bek council estimates each affected refund would range between $43 to $59.
It’s worth noting that the local council claimed the affected fines were valid at the time of the offence. However, it said it would refund the overcharged portion of an eligible driver’s fine and not the entire amount.
Merri-bek council said there were 11 minor traffic infringements that were affected by the historical error, of which, a vast majority of them were parking fines.
According to the road authority, overstaying parking time limits the most common offence cited. Failing to pay and obey instructions was the second-most affected traffic infringement and stopping at a 'no parking' sign was ranked third.
A full list of the affected traffic offences involved in the refund scheme is listed down below.
The local road authority said in order to claim the refund, an affected driver "will need to know and produce evidence of the traffic infringement number".
If the infringement number isn't available, Merri-bek City Council said a motorist needs to know the vehicle's registration number and "produce evidence of owning or using that vehicle at the time you received the fine".
Cathy Henderson, Chief Executive Officer of Merri-bek City Council, said the refund scheme reflects the council's “commitment to to integrity, transparency and fairness.”
“This is a regrettable historical administrative error, and we apologise for the impact of the overcharge. Parking is a limited resource and to ensure fair access to everyone, parking restrictions and controls are necessary.
“All revenue raised from parking fines is reinvested back into our community to provide services and facilities to the Merri-bek community,” Henderson said in a media statement.
| The 11 affected types of parking infringements |
| 1) Parked for period longer than indicated |
| 2) Parked fail to pay and obey instructions on sign |
| 3) Stopped contrary to No Parking sign |
| 4) Stopped on a bicycle parking area |
| 5) Stopped on a motor bike parking area |
| 6) Parked contrary to requirement of parking area |
| 7) Parked not at an angle of 45 degrees |
| 8) Parked not at an angle of 90 degrees |
| 9) Parked not completely within parking bay |
| 10) Parked long vehicle exceed minimum number of bays |
| 11) Parked wide vehicle exceed minimum number of bays |
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.
