Fair Trading in NSW have laid criminal charges of harassment against Australian National Car Parks for the manner in which it allegedly attempted to collect its debts. A mention hearing was held on 7th June 2013 in Parramatta local court at which Australian National Car Parks entered not guilty pleas. Orders were made for a brief of evidence to be served by 5th July. The matter was listed for replies to the brief on 19th July 2013. Basically what that means is the next hearing will be on 19th July in Parramatta local court when ANCP will need to state what its defence is going to be. On the 19th July, ANCP again pleaded not-guilty and asked for the case to be adjourned until 4th September so they can prepare their case. The case is listed as Regina versus Australian National Car Park. The informant is the NSW Department of Finance and Services (Office of Fair Trading). At the mention hearing on the 19th July, there was strong media interest with crews from WIN TV, 7, 10 present. According to Louise Roy who attended the case on the 19th July, Australian National Car Parks Pty Ltd are charged with having "engaged in undue harassment; namely, the continuing threat of legal action ... in relation to non-payment of a parking infringement notice".
There were also reports that Fair Trading is considering a civil action against ANCP in the Supreme Court of NSW (although this hasn't been officially announced yet).
On the 4th September, the case began and evidence was heard from two witnesses for the prosecution. The two witnesses called by the prosecution were Romesh Dhamapalan and Sibel Kaan. Mr Dhamapalan gave evidence that he had never been to the car park where ANCP say he parked his car. Ms Kaan admitted going to the car park, but said she parked for less than the maximum free period. She said that when she rang Australian Recoveries and Collections to try and settle the matter, she was confronted by ARC employee Hamish Smith who said says was very rude and pushy and who refused to negotiate.
The magistrate was Jennifer Betts, the defence barrister was Peter Silver and the prosecutor was Anne-Marie Mannile.
They eventually ran out of time and the case was adjourned till 8th November 2013 and then adjourned again until 25th November. The day's hearing on 4th September brought the following media coverage that night and the next morning:
Channel 7 news coverage, features Louise Roy (reporter Paul Kadak)
Channel 2 news coverage, features Louise Roy (starts 25 seconds in - reporter Karl Hoerr)
Note: The case was eventually withdrawn by the prosecution.
See article in the Australian http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/fines-case-no-trivial-pursuit/story-e6frg6n6-1226648716811 Note the article implies that there are only two complainants. However, that is not so. The reality is Fair Trading have taken in excess of 50 witness statements from people who claim they were harassed by Australian National Car Parks and its debt collectors.
For more information on Australian National Car Parks, see my main page on Australian National Car Parks.
For more information about Australian Recoveries and Collections see here.
Criminal Court listing
Read how Brian was demoralised by ANCP into paying a fine
Read article in Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/car-park-operators-tactics-face-court-scrutiny-20130713-2pwta.html