"Wickedly negligent": Five-month-old left in car on 38-degree day while parents shop for TV
<p>Parents who left their five-month-old baby in a locked car on a 38C day as they shopped for a television have been fined only $300 each.</p>
<p>The couple from Mt Druitt in Sydney’s west, who can’t be named for legal reasons, parked at The Good Guys in the Prospect Homemaker Centre, on January 26.</p>
<p>Passers-by noticed the child crying in the car alone, which prompted them to alert staff who tried to page the parents multiple times.</p>
<p>After receiving zero response, the staff rescued the child themselves before calling the police.</p>
<p>The Blacktown Local Court heard the mother returned to the car after the call to police was made.</p>
<p>A short while later, the child’s father was found still inside the store trying to finalise the purchase of a television.</p>
<p>Police revealed that the pair showed “no remorse” for their actions.</p>
<p>“They appeared more concerned with finalising the purchase of their electronic equipment,” said police.</p>
<p>Magistrate Jennifer Giles slammed the couple for leaving the baby in the car on a scorching hot day.</p>
<p>“You cannot leave a baby in a hot car in Australia, the kid will be dead in 20 minutes,” said Ms Giles.</p>
<p>“It is wickedly negligent for you to have done so.</p>
<p>“It is a prevalent offence and the court needs to make sure you are denounced and deterred.”</p>
<p>With the help of an interpreter, the father apologised before explaining that they had left the child in the car because it was sleeping, and they had turned the air conditioning on.</p>
<p>Both parents were charged with one count of leaving a child in a motor vehicle and causing distress but were fined just $300 each.</p>
