Parking inspector sacked after confessing to handing out ‘fake fines’ in Uni car park in bid to meet ‘quota’
A parking inspector has admitted issuing fake tickets at a major Adelaide university; At one point, a business owner was issued 14 fines for false allegations that he parked illegally in a university car park.
Adelaide’s Bruno Elias suspected something was wrong when he received a surprising number of penalties in the post.
The offenses alleged he parked illegally in the Wilson car park at the University of Adelaide.
“I looked at all of them (the penalties) and I knew they weren’t me,” Mr Elias told 9 News.
“I didn’t know where parking lot 140A at the University of Adelaide was.”
The sanctions were forwarded to the South Australian government’s Criminal Enforcement and Recovery Unit, which threatened to have Mr Elias’ licenses and registrations revoked and his cars seized.
Mr Elias claimed Wilson told him they could not help him, prompting him to make his own investigation.
There he discovered the lone employee behind these alleged violations and a surprising connection through his network of friends.
“There are five people I know in my friendship group who received these sentences,” Mr. Elias said.
9 News reported that the employee admitted to giving the fines allegedly given by using black photographs as “evidence” and entering license plates into the system in order to meet the “daily quota”.
“He basically said these were easy-to-understand numbers because I was seeing them all the time,” Mr. Elias told the broadcaster.
“I think this is a big problem and needs to be investigated at the highest level because it’s not good enough.”
NewsWire has contacted both Wilson and the University of Adelaide for comment.
Speaking to 9 News, Wilson said they had become aware of concerns about the behavior of a single parking attendant in Adelaide.
“We immediately initiated an internal investigation and this individual is no longer employed by Wilson Parking,” the company said in a statement.
The fines imposed on the affected customers have been cancelled.
