Wollongong council can be accused of an act of larceny by installing parking meters three weeks before they legally apply - and making them operative immediately.
Visitors from out of town and those citizens who do not get a daily newspaper will believe that if they do not put coin in the meters they will cop a fine.
Imagine the uproar if a club or pub being refurbished installed their poker machines with access to the public - but turned off the pay-out mechanism. The machines will cheerfully accept money - but will not pay on a winning combination.
The fact that the council is offering to donate to charity any money collected in the interim before the machines become legal is not a valid defence. Would a magistrate accept that a bandit who robbed a person was innocent - because he intended to donate his proceeds of crime to the Smith Family ?
Of course it will take time to install parking meters, but what is wrong with covering them in plastic until the day they become operational legally ?
Nothing will obscure the fact that this council has set a trap for the unwary and knowingly will relieve them of money they are not obliged to spend.
Whatever happened to the Aussie principle of a fair go ?
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