Have a pile of parking tickets with no photo evidence to back up if and when you were actually, technically ever there? Well take a page out of V S Raveentharan’s book, and go to court to argue. He’s recently had his Penang Island City Council (MBPP) parking summons overturned after successfully arguing there was no way the police could ever prove that he was even there in the first place.
Yes, that’s right. If there’s nothing to show that you were there, then were you ever there at all? The law, it seems, follows the same logic as an introspective high school student.
Magistrate Mohamad Amin Shahul Hamid said the city failed to prove a prima facie , which is to say that the burden of proof laid with MBPP that a crime was committed. A summons in itself was not enough to prove that a car or person were there, and thus the Mr Raveentharan was not liable to pay the ticket. The judge also cited several technical issues with regards to the case.
Baljit Singh, the lawyer representing Raveentharan, who is a lawyer himself, told reporters, “they could not prove it was my client that had parked the car and they failed to give him the chance to explain. Instead, they issued the summon to his name because he owned the car.”
He added that the case itself set a precedence for the people of Penang when dealing with the MBPP, and not to take a summons at face value.
You heard it here: if there ain’t a pic, you must acquit.
