A Wellington couple were forced to pay $1356 in fines for offences they did not commit after the Courts Department threatened to seize their car.
Brendan Keys and Helen Lynch said they had to pay cash to the department immediately to avoid having their BMW towed away at their expense.
But the seven fines related to infringements caused by the owner of an Audi, a brand of car the couple had never owned.
The pair said Collections Unit staff bullied them, and they found it bizarre that they had to prove their innocence to be reimbursed.
Mr Keys, a human resources consultant, said: "What if it had been some poor person who could not get the money; who did not have access to advice that I had?
"What would happen to them?
"We're going to make more letters of complaint about this inappropriate behaviour."
At 7.45am on June 12, the couple found their car had been clamped outside the family home. A notice stuck to the car said they had until 11am that day to pay the fines or the car would be towed.
Ms Lynch said she phoned the Courts Department and discovered fines relating to warrant of fitness breaches for an Audi.
She went to the department's offices at 10am and was told the couple must prove they had never owned the Audi. Ms Lynch got the Land Transport Safety Authority to confirm this by telephone.
Two Courts staff took her into an interview room and told her it was too late to present evidence and that she had to pay, Ms Lynch said.
"What outrages me most is they would not look at evidence that proves we were not the owners."
Courts area collections manager Nita Wooller said the department had acted on wrong information and sincerely regretted it.
- NZPA
Couple fined over car they didn't own
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