IT HAS been 10 years since Clunes residents Mary and Bill Hassell were in Queensland.More than two years has past since Ross Creek's Aladdin Jamali made the trip north.But according to Queensland Motorways, the Hassells and Mr Jamali were there recently _ and they didn't pay the road tolls.Each has received a fine to the tune of $22.10, along with a photograph of the vehicle they supposedly own on the tollway.Despite the number plates matching up, the vehicles are vastly different.Mr Hassell said he thought it was a joke when he received the notice."We go to Mildura every year and might pop over the border to NSW but we haven't been to Queensland since 1999,'' he said. "The photo shows a silver station wagon, but we own a white EL Ford Falcon sedan _ it's totally different.''Mr Jamali said he was baffled by the notice, which was dated when he was on holiday in the Grampians."I showed my colleagues the notice and they looked at the photo laughing, there is no similarity at all,'' he said."Somehow their computer is making some sort of error or they can't figure out which state the car is from.''Mr Jamali owns a blue Toyota Yaris, but the vehicle pictured in his fine was an old, white van.Earlier this month The Courier reported a similar story from Lal Lal's Brenda Davis.All three fines have since been overturned. Queensland Motorways chief executive Phil Mumford admitted three incorrect notices sent to the Ballarat region in one month was unusual."There are more than 250,000 tolled trips on the Queensland Motorways road network each day and (we are) aware that there have been some rare instances where interstate motorists have been incorrectly identified as travelling on the Queensland Motorways road network,'' CEO Phil Mumford said."In these cases the Queensland Motorways tolling system has correctly identified the LPN, however the state of registration has been identified incorrectly."
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading