Worker’s father banned from mall

Press, 1 December 1988, Page 1

Worker’s father banned from mall

An Islington man may be taken to court for trespassing in the Riccarton Mall yesterday, over a long-running car-parking dispute. Mr Mike Mora refused to leave the mall until his daughter’s car, which was towed away earlier in the day, was returned. He also refused to pay the $44 towing fee. His daughter, Miss Karen Mora, is employed in one of the mall shops. The car was illegally parked in the mall car-park and the owner had been issued with warning notices on a number of occasions, said the mall manager, Miss Anna Waters. Shop owners and employees had access to a carpark above the mall and on the perimeter of the car-park. Mr Mora said he believed that his daughter had been “picked on” because she was the Southern Distribution Workers’ Union delegate for the mall and had started a petition 18 months before, against parking above the mall. “I am quite willing to be

arrested on the principle of the matter,” he said. Miss Waters said the car was not towed away because of Miss Mora’s association with the union, but because it was illegally parked and had had a final warning notice. “The other cars also illegally parked had received notices but not a final one, so that is why this particular girl was made an example of,” she said. The union’s Christchurch representative, Ms Trisha Stanley, said the mall management was within its rights to take the car away. “We initially thought that it was because of the girl’s involvement in the union that she had been chosen as the example, but if she had been issued with a final warning notice then she had to face the consequences,” Ms Stanley said. Mr Mora was charged with trespassing by Miss Waters and was issued with a notice that banned him from the mall for two years.