Why Bass Coast’s parking fines are the ultimate leveller

IT DOESN’T matter if you’re a celebrity billionaire or a young local mum with a sick kiddie in the car.

The Bass Coast Shire Council doesn’t play favourites when it comes to chasing down people with unpaid parking fines.

On Tuesday this week, the Council took 25 such “offenders” to the Wonthaggi Magistrates Court in an effort to recover the outstanding amounts.

One of them was a young local mum, who appeared by video link in front of Judicial Registrar Anthony Gwynne, to explain that she had completely forgotten about the ticket she was issued back on January 9, 2025, while stopping in a no parking zone, because she was attending to a sick child at the time.

“I was dealing with some medical problems my child was having at the time and it must have completely slipped my mind. I didn’t even know about it until I was summonsed to appear,” she told Mr Gwynne.

Another was celebrity billionaire Adrian Portelli, who had a $198 parking ticket affixed to the windscreen of his white/grey Aston Martin, while allegedly parked in a loading zone in Thompson Avenue in Cowes, on Wednesday, January 1, 2025.

Only a couple of months earlier, Mr Portelli had famously purchased an entire holiday house complex in Justice Road, Cowes, built by the contestants on the 2024 season of The Block, for $15.03 million.

However, after enjoying the magnificently appointed holiday compound, including pool, spa and tennis courts, with family and friends over the Christmas-New Year period, he just as famously put the five painstakingly renovated homes up as a trade promotion prize through his LMCT+ company, alongside the offer of $8 million in cash. The winner took the cash.

Whether or not it was the parking ticket he received on New Year’s Day in the main street of Cowes that prompted to quit the Island, we’ll probably never know.

Mr Portelli was not required to appear in court, either in person or via video link, as according to the shire’s legal representative, the “matter has been withdrawn”.

This could mean that the fine was paid in the interim or the matter was resolved in another way.

According to documents submitted to the court by the shire, a Penalty Reminder Notice was sent to Mr Portelli on March 6, 2025, including a penalty charge of $28.40, and then a Final Notice on September 24, 2025.

The infringement notice of $198 and penalty charge of $28.40 had remained unpaid when the matter was listed for decision by the courts, where the council also sought costs of $226.40, bringing the grand total outstanding to $420.20, including such costs as ‘preparation of summons’ $31.90, Vicroads’ search $27, and photocopying $7.20.

How much the billionaire businessman, and one-time famous Phillip Island resident, paid in fines and penalties was not revealed.

The judicial registrar continued through each of the 25 shire claims in turn, a number of them being withdrawn after they had been likewise “resolved”.