BUSTED!
Darwin council exec car ‘snapped’ parking illegally but owner gets off with a warning...
THE owner of a car seen recently being driven by the executive manager of Darwin council won’t be fined despite the car being snapped parked illegally outside her usual coffee spot.
Instead, and unlike the thousands of other Territorians targeted by the council’s inspectors each year, the owner of Melissa Reiter’s ride will be given a written warning not to park illegally again.
The Range Rover was snapped on Thursday morning outside Cavenagh Hotel.
The car had been illegally parked on a yellow line on the busy CBD street.
A Darwin Council spokeswoman said Ms Reiter, who earns a six-figure salary from ratepayers, was on leave and unavailable to answer questions about whether the executive owned the car or respond to allegations she had parked it illegally about 200m from her office.
“Council will issue a warning in writing to the owner of this vehicle advising them that they have parked illegally,” the spokeswoman said.
“If the owner of this ve- hicle is caught again, they will immediately receive an infringement notice.” A witness told the Sunday
Territorian the incident was hypocrisy at its best.
“Maybe ( there is) a council perk not to get booked by City of Darwin parking rangers like the rest of us commoners?”
Ms Reiter was formerly the general manager at Darwin Port Corporation and ran for a position as a council alderman in the 2015 by-election of Lyons ward.
For the financial year of 2015/2016, a massive 28,730 fines were issued. In the first three months of 2017, Darwin council slugged drivers with almost 5800 carparking fines, bringing in more than $231,000 to council coffers.
The “blue bombers” papered the city with almost one infringement every seven minutes from January to March this year.
In March, Darwin man Dan Carr claimed he had been is- sued with a parking fine 23 minutes before his ticket ran out. “I’ve been stung before but that was my fault, this wasn’t,” he said. “Parking in this town is beyond a joke.”
The council refused to waive his fine.