An Altona resident whose family is opposed to smoking received a $590 fine after someone called the EPA hotline to report that a female passenger threw a lit cigarette out his car window.
Anthony Ang says he may contest the infringement in court so he can learn the identify of his accuser and hopefully deter others from making “false allegations”.
Last financial year, the EPA collected more than $4 million from litter fines after issuing 12,859 infringement notices.
On the day of the alleged offence, September 2, Mr Ang and his medical doctor wife Linda had taken their four-year-old son to a GP with a high fever. They have never smoked, “detest second-hand smoke” and did not drive in Rayner Street, where the littering was reported to have occurred.
After posting about his plight on Facebook last week, more than a dozen people commented that they had received such fines for offences they did not commit.
One man said he received five fines in one day and spent a year in court fighting them.
No verification of a complainant’s identity is required by the EPA.
Mr Ang said the EPA policy was vulnerable to abuse.
“The reporter can provide a fabricated name, contact details and allegations,” he said.
“The reporter is not required to produce any evidence, such as photos, videos, third-party witnesses … to substantiate the allegation.
“It becomes the responsibility of the accused to prove their innocence.
“Pranksters, people who bear a grudge, people who have nothing better to do, racially motivated bigots … will simply get away scot-free without any penalty. Worse still, there is a segment of the population – such as the less-informed, more elderly, the non-English-literate – who will simply pay the fines although they are innocent.”
EPA spokeswoman Rosanna Bonaccurso said anyone could make an online litter report by providing the accused’s car registration number and vehicle description.
“Information provided is validated against the VicRoads database to identify the potential offender,” she said.
“The reporter must also provide their full name/contact details upon lodging a litter report.
“If at any point the notice recipient is under the impression that the report is vexatious, then they may express that by completing a statutory declaration.”
