They say no good deed goes unpunished and Jonathan Sutcliffe would likely agree.

Early last month, when a friend called him up and asked if he would drive him to the hospital for x-rays, Sutcliffe didn’t hesitate to say yes.

“Anyone who knows me will usually call me to give them a ride because they know I don’t say ‘no,’ or ask for gas money,” he said.

“He needed my help and I was happy to help him.”

But after getting slapped with a heavy parking ticket the last time he accompanied a pal to Rouge Valley Centenary hospital in Scarborough, the 23-year-old decided instead to park in the lot of a Tim Hortons across the street.

When he returned to his vehicle 30 minutes later, Sutcliffe was shocked to find a yellow slip under his wiper. A closer look at the ticket showed it wasn’t issued by the City of Toronto, but by a private firm called Parking Control Unit.

The ticket — labelled as a ‘parking invoice’ — was for a whopping $250. However, details on the back of the ticket explained the price would drop to $25 if payment was made within 10 days — $50 if made within 28 days.

Sutcliffe’s first instinct was to look up the company’s website on his phone. He said the website “looked pretty ridiculous,” and his calls to the company were directed straight to payment options, so he decided to take the ticket home.

After looking online and finding other individuals who were questioning the bizarre tickets, Sutcliffe decided to go to his local police division to find out if the ticket was legitimate.

“The cop basically said: ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ve seen these before. It’s garbage. It’s fake,’” Sutcliffe said.

He decided not to pay the ticket, but has held onto it in case the company or a collections agency tries to contact him. So far, nobody has.

According to Dave Vanrooyen, operations manager for Parking Control Unit, these notices are within the limits of city bylaws.

“The Impark way of doing business, which is giving consent on private property and posting the fee and posting the terms of use on the property, is legal,” he explained.

“So it doesn’t violate the consumer protection that the City of Toronto has.”

However, the relevant 2004 city bylaw states that agencies cannot issue tickets demanding payment in relation to vehicles parked on private property — only a municipal enforcement officer can do so.

There is one exception: Impark and similar lots are specifically and clearly commercial lots, so they are allowed to issue tickets enforcing payment on anyone who overstays their paid time.

However, all other private lots, such as a Tim Hortons, may only issue City of Toronto tickets. Any other form of parking notice demanding payment breaks the bylaw and should be reported, according to Bruce Robertson, director of licensing for the city.

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“If that happens, they should phone municipal licensing and standards and make a complaint and we’ll look into it,” he said.

Sutcliffe was relieved to hear this and said he’ll probably make the call. For now, he’s been spreading the word about the iffy tickets through the Toronto page of online aggregator site, Reddit, warning other potential parkers to check their yellow slips carefully.