Late last month, the man, whom the ODT has agreed not to name, got into a heated argument with a Dunedin City Council parking officer, who he says jubilantly confronted him after he dropped his wife off to work using a disabled carpark.
The man claimed the "sting" was a blatant attempt at revenue gathering and said he had since seen officers handing out tickets at 7am to people using disabled carparks briefly to drop workers off at the hospital.
The council has rejected "any suggestion" healthcare workers are being targeted or officers are engaging in "revenue gathering" and says a dramatic increase in tickets for parking in mobility parks is because of widespread abuse of the rules.
The man said at the end of July, he was driving his wife, a nurse at Dunedin Hospital, to work on a dark and frosty morning.
He dropped her at a Cumberland St entrance near a wheelchair ramp as she had limited mobility, but the only free spot to do a quick drop-off was in a disabled carpark.
They were stationary for just enough time to say "I’ll see you later, darling".
"She gets out, closes the door, and I look in the mirror and here’s this parking enforcement fellow talking to my wife," the man said.
He got out and said he felt the warden was "ecstatic to catch them in the act".
"And this smugness of this character — he was almost gleeful."
He said he had seen the same warden "lurking" and "waiting to pounce" most days at 7am.
"It’s not my nature to hit the wall, but he probably got a few expletives.
"The parking around the hospital is rubbish ... they know that, you know it, we all know it."
As he understood it, the council was "chucking them tickets out like confetti at the moment", the man said.
The ODT visited the same spot twice this week at 6.30-7am and saw a lot of brief double-parking, but no parking wardens.
Council data shows that since the fees for parking in a disabled park rose from $150 to $750, both the number of tickets issued and revenue has increased markedly from previous years.
Between October last year and June 30 this year, 300 tickets were issued with a total value of $225,000, up from 128 tickets and a value of $19,350 in the same period the previous year.
Dunedin City Council acting compliance solutions manager Cazna Savell rejected any suggestion of revenue gathering.
"The misuse of mobility parking spaces is a long-standing issue, including in Dunedin, and every motorist stopping in a mobility park — even momentarily — is taking up a space intended for others with real and specific needs.
"Anyone stopping on a mobility parking space needs to display a valid mobility parking permit or they risk receiving a fine, and signage at these locations is clear."
Officers started their day at 7am in the central business district, and the area around the Dunedin Hospital was included, she said.
"There are a large number of timed and permit-only parks around the hospital which apply 24/7 ... and our enforcement activity reflects this."
The recent increase in tickets was a response to "widespread abuse of mobility parking spaces", she said.
