Detailed report of a blue badge fraud

A company director who went to extraordinary lengths to fraudulently obtain a disabled person's parking permit has narrowly avoided being sent to jail after magistrates said her dishonesty was "serious, persistent and premeditated".

Zebunishia Gani had been fraudulently using an expired blue badge that belonged to her husband. She was also caught attempting to gain her own by feigning a serious disability.

Her scam failed because she was already under investigation by the council's permit fraud team who had witnessed her happily walking long distances whilst carrying heavy shopping bags.

In court the 64-year-old from Streatham pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud and deception. Magistrates told her that normally she could expect to go straight to prison, but they were willing to be lenient in view of her age and guilty plea.

She was given a one month prison term suspended for six months, ordered to wear an electronic tag and observe a 9pm to 7am curfew for three months. She was also ordered to pay the council's prosecution costs of £850.

The court heard that Mrs Gani's dishonesty first came to light in April last year when fraud investigators spotted a black Mercedes parked in a disabled parking bay in Rookstone Road, Tooting. The expiry date of the Lambeth-issued badge left on the dashboard had been crudely altered from August 2004 to August 2009.

Checks showed that that badge had been issued in 2001 to Mrs Gani's husband Aboobaker. Further investigations revealed that it was being regularly used by his wife to park in the same disabled bay while she went to work in Boyds - the shop the couple own in Mitcham Road.

When witnessed she was always on her own, had no difficulty walking, used no walking aid and had parked the car some distance from the entrance to the shop. The same forged badge was also later seen in a blue Mercedes parked in nearby Brightwell Crescent. This car was impounded by the council and the badge seized.

As the investigation continued it emerged that Mrs Gani had also illegally applied for her own blue badge from Wandsworth - by fraudulently using her business address in Tooting instead of her home address in Lambeth.

On her application form she claimed she couldn’t walk 25 metres without stopping or experiencing severe discomfort. She said she had to use a walking stick and a letter from her GP confirmed that she needed a walking aid and could not walk more than 50 metres without needing a rest.

Unfortunately for her, the council had already filmed her walking more than 100 metres without using a stick and in no sign of distress.

As a result, Mrs Gani was called in to the town hall for an assessment by an occupational therapist. On that occasion she appeared to be so disabled that she couldn’t walk ten metres even with a stick and aided by a family member.

A few days later however she was seen shopping in Balham High Road without any problems. She was carrying heavy shopping bags and walking with no impairment and no stick.

Just after this she went shopping in Tooting Sainsbury’s. She parked in a disabled bay before wandering easily around the store. She was filmed walking briskly back to her car with her shopping, having been on her feet for around half an hour, without using a stick, or being assisted by anyone. She then drove to the disabled bay in Rookstone Road before walking back to her shop with her heavy carrier bags.

Mrs Gani was then called in for a second assessment. She was filmed leaving her home, happily walking to her car swinging her stick in the air. She climbed behind the wheel and drove off en route to the town hall with her husband in the passenger seat.

When she arrived, she had switched to the back seat and her ability to walk had suddenly deteriorated. She had to be helped out of the car and could not walk without leaning heavily on her stick. She stopped every few paces to catch her breath and complained of constant pain and breathlessness.

As a result she was called in for a formal tape-recorded interview. She arrived with her solicitor, who at the start of the interview, read out a prepared statement reiterating that Mrs Gani could walk no further than 25 metres and that she had been advised by her physiotherapist ‘to occasionally try to walk without my stick’.

At this point, she was shown the covert filming of her shopping trips and from then on answered "no comment" to all questions and allegations put to her.

The council's transport spokesman Guy Senior said: "This case demonstrates the lengths some people will go to hoodwink and con their way into getting a blue badge. Mrs Gani deserves an Oscar for her dramatic performance.

"Abuse of the blue badge system is rife, unwittingly supported in some cases by GPs who are themselves conned into signing letters confirming a patient's mobility problem without any real evidence to back up such a claim.

"It is left up to councils to tackle this form of fraud and I am happy to say here in Wandsworth we have a proven track record of catching those able-bodied motorists who callously and selfishly take away disabled parking bays from those who genuinely need them."