A PRIVATE investigator is shaping up for a court stoush over a $91 parking fine that he claims is “unAustralian” and “a revenue-raising scheme”.
Dean Gascoyne was startled to find the ticket on his car in January this year after taking his dog Ty to Safety Beach. He had left his car at what seemed to be a parking zone off Marine Drive, opposite the dog-friendly beach.
“Plenty of people park there — it looks like a parking area and there are no signs to say it’s not,” he said.
A solid yellow line runs along the gutter there and the Road Safety Road Rules 2009 states vehicles must not stop on a road with a yellow edge line.
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Mr Gascoyne, 44, admitted he did the wrong thing and the onus was on him to know the rules, but he said the nearest sign was about 50m away and faced the other direction.
“I normally park on the other side of the road, but this day I parked there and walked across to the dog beach,” he said. “I did see the yellow line but I didn’t know what it meant. Now I do.”
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RACV’s manager roads and traffic Dave Jones said the yellow line rule was not well known in Victoria and seemed to be inconsistently applied.
“We think signs are much better because people are used to looking for parking signs,” he said. “When there is an area where lots of people are not sure of parking restrictions, it would be better to have standard signs that are universally understood.
Mr Gascoyne, who works as a stevedore and private investigator, said it seemed foolish for a ‘No stopping’ sign to be placed further down the road but not at the area frequented by beachgoers.
“If they can site signs up where nobody parks, why can’t they put a sign up where everybody does park? It’s nothing more than a revenue-raising scheme.”
Mr Gascoyne asked Mornington Peninsula Shire to waive the fine.
“They basically said it was too bad and I’d have to cop it,” he said.
Mr Gascoyne is now looking forward to his day in court.
“I have asked about 100 people and nobody seems to know about this yellow-line rule,” he said.
“I’m not disputing that I’ve done wrong, but I just thought, stuff it. Nobody knows about this. It’s unAustralian. It’s entrapment.”
Mornington Peninsula Shire Council declined to comment on the issue as it was before the court.
