The city?s inspector general suspended one parking agent without pay Thursday for writing fake tickets after an investigation uncovered thousands of other bogus citations. Inspector General Hilton Green suspended the agent after a series of articles in The Examiner exposed the parking ticket scandal.
Previously, the agent ? identified as H. West ? was suspended with pay pending Green?s investigation.
“I believe the people I interviewed to be credible,” Green said of the motorists claiming to be victims of fake ticket writing. “I felt there were grounds for changing the agent?s status.”
Green would not say whether he would refer the case to prosecutors for criminal prosecution.
“I can?t comment on that until the investigation is complete,” he said.
Since the city Department of Transportation admitted at least one agent wrote fake tickets, Green said he has received complaints from 67 motorists who claim to have been victims of bogus tickets. The 67 cases are in addition to complaints filed against West, who could not be reached for comment.
Of the more than 900,000 tickets issued in 2005 and 2006, Green said up to 10,000 tickets were identified as unwarranted. Green declined to say how many of those tickets involved West.
He added that those who received unwarranted tickets would receive refunds after the investigation was completed.
“Many are input errors where you had an inversion of numbers or letters, and someone gets a ticket when their car is not there,” Green said.
