DRIVE A2B November 2017

“It’s an agreed fact the vehicle
did not display a permit,” Mr Pizer
said.
Documents subpoenaed by Mr
Sheridan’s lawyers reveal it did
not do this for at least two years
between mid-2014 and mid-2016,
putting it in breach of the Airports
(Control of On-Airport Activities)
Regulations.
The subpoenaed documents
contained correspondence in
emails between the airport’s
parking operations co-ordinator,
its legal counsel and the federal
Department of Infrastructure and
Regional Development, stating
that the department had no
record of receiving the airport’s
parking signage plan.
The documents also revealed the
department had not notified the
airport that it was in breach of
the regulations, in an apparent
oversight on its part.
Airport parking officers
issued 848 parking fines
between April and June,
2015, during which time the
airport was in breach, the
subpoenaed documents
show, equating to more
than nine fines a day.
Melbourne Airport’s lawyers
sought to block the release of
the documents, but were ordered
to by Magistrate Megan Aumair,
who ruled that they should be
released to the defence as a
matter of “procedural fairness”.
Following their release, Lisa
Evans, Melbourne Airport’s
company secretary, who also
sits on its board of directors,
conceded in court on September
8, 2017 that the airport could not
show its parking signage plan
had been made public or given to
authorities.
“The only answer I can give,
based on my limited knowledge
of the regulations, is that we
haven’t been able to produce
any evidence of compliance,” Ms
Evans said.
Hire car driver Tony Sheridan challenged four parking fines.
Photo: Justin McManus
DRIVE A2B magazine · November 2017
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