Three Melbourne councils will have to refund millions of dollars in parking fines after Victoria’s Ombudsman found they were unlawfully issued.

Deborah Glass has found Glen Eira, Port Phillip and Stonnington councils acted “contrary to the law” when they outsourced the review of their parking fines to a private contractor.

Kingston and Monash councils paid back almost 50,000 fines last year over the same issue that was first unearthed on 3AW.

But the other three councils in question dug in their heels, prompting the investigation.

The fines were handed out between 2006 and 2016.

The refunds only apply to those who challenged their fine.

“If you were issued a fine over that period and you didn’t challenge it, well you’ve paid your fine, there’s no issue (because) you accept you’ve done something wrong,” Deborah Glass told 3AW Mornings.

“If you did challenge a fine in that period, because you think you’ve got good reasons to do so, and your review was not upheld then you’re in that category.

“That decision was probably made by somebody who shouldn’t have made it and you’d be entitled to a refund.”

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Deborah Glass told Neil Mitchell the law required councils to review any challenged fines themselves.

“What went wrong for about 10 years is that a number of councils outsourced that decision-making to a private contractor,” she said.

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