NSW Should We Pay Overcharged Parking Fines?

[bkseen]

Hi there,

From overseas but living in Sydney. I went to Byearon for Christmas and got issued a penalty with the offence code 9325 (fail to comply with terms of notice erected by council) in the morning as me and my girlfriend were resting in the car because we didn't want to drive back drunk.

Anyway, we are from overseas, and only have an European drivers licence and the ranger put the wrong name & DOB on the penalty notice. Also we don't have any Australian drivers licence, so I guess he only got the number of the European one.

Anyway, do we have a risk of anything if we don't pay this fine?

We found this fine was really abused & unfair because there were 5 other cars (Oz young people) beside us and they didn't have any fine. They only told them to back home. Kind of discriminating.

The thing is, we are not "backpackers" going around Australia. We are paying taxes and would like to integrate into the country so we are pretty straightforward people here and trying to follow all the rules.

But paying $110 of parking fines for resting 2 hours in our car (with no signs of no overnight staying/camping), in my opinion, is an abuse of power to make money from overseas people. I fully understand when there are backpackers putting a mess to be fined, but we are not.

Thanks in advance for your answer.

Cheers

 

[Jason_nsw]

I'm no legal person, but I'm confident that there is nigh zero chance of them chasing down fines to overseas residents.

 

[bkseen]

Thanks for your answer Jason.

I am considered as an Australian resident (sponsorship in process) because I have been living in Australia for 1.5 years. I just didn't change our licence to an Australian one yet.

The car we were sleeping in is in my name but on the fine the plate is not mentioned and the offence code is not link directly with the car right?