Driver fined $50 for handing $1.50 to window-washer
A driver who gave a window-washer $1.50 claims he was fined $50.
The Perth man told 9News the situation was rendered even weirder by the charge he was given for the apparent misdemeanour.
Luke Bresland, 49, said he had been driving down Roberts Road in the Perth suburb of Subiaco in February when a window-washer approached his car and began to clean the windscreen completely unprompted.
Mr Bresland told the news channel he hadn’t wanted his window washed, but handed the young man $1.50 anyway.
Shortly afterwards, he was pulled over by a police officer.
"He asked me if I paid him and I said, ‘yes’, and he said, 'are you aware that's illegal?' and I said, ‘no’,” Mr Bresland said.
He asked if the officer could issue him with a caution instead of a fine but the policeman refused, and he was subsequently hit with the bizarre-sounding charge of “buying a newspaper” and made to pay $50.
"He told me I could plead not guilty in court and I said that was a waste of my time and his, and then he told me he was a public servant and gets paid hourly," the father-of three told WAtoday.
Mr Bresland had been gearing up to fight the charge in court when WA Police backed down and conceded the fine was “heavy-handed”.
State Traffic Inspector Vic Hussey told Gareth Parker on Radio 6PR's Mornings program on Friday the charge had been withdrawn and the officer who issued the infringement had been spoken to.
“The reality is, unfortunately, sometimes you can make a decision and then reflect upon on it, and it’s not necessarily the best one,” he said.
“Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don’t and on this occasion we stuffed up.”
Inspector Hussey said the charge’s origins stemmed from the days when newspapers would be sold to cars along Beaufort Street, but more broadly related to a “service” being offered to drivers.
“The officer was trying to address an issue and all of us have examined it ... sometimes we get it right, sometimes we don’t,” he said.
However, he added, “the reality is it is an offence.”
In Australia, roadside window-washing is illegal in every state and territory except the ACT.
In Western Australia, people caught by police breaching the law face fines of $50.
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