A retired businessman from Paddington has been convicted of using his dead mother's disabled parking badge on his Mercedes sports car - three years after she died.
He was caught using the document, issued by Harrow Council, by Kensington and Chelsea Council's fraud team who received a tip-off from the police. Investigators found the disc expired in 2006, but the date had been changed to 2008. Mr Laren's mother died in January 2005. He was fined £750 and ordered to pay costs of £1,532.14.
htp: Dave again
Fatuously Cllr Fiona Buxton said, "I hope this sends out the message to those thinking of committing fraud with a disabled blue badge that they will be caught."
Which it clearly won't.
As we saw last year, 2.3 million disabled blue badges were issued in 2007. For someone working in Central London, possession of a fraudulent blue badge would mean that charges (congestion charge plus car parking charges) over £5,000 a year could be avoided; and there would also be an adverse impact on disabled people who genuinely need concessions and parking spaces close to their local amenities.
So the penalty is trivial. Additional to the sentence, any vehicle in a blue badge fraud should be seized and sold.
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