A series of Blue Badge parking cheats have been named and shamed in court after being caught abusing the disabled scheme in London.
Drivers have been fined hundreds of pounds after offering a variety of excuses, ranging from finding a badge discarded to not understanding official small print.
Among the offenders before Westminster Magistrates’ Court was one who used a deceased friend’s pass while another explained how he had discovered the badge lying strewn on the street.
Hammersmith and Fulham council’s lawyer Champa Gurnani told of the local authority’s ‘zero tolerance policy’ towards abusers of the Blue Badge disabled parking scheme.
She said: ‘It is an offence that is happening non-stop on double yellow lines and pay-and-display bays and legitimate blue badge holders are finding parking spaces taken up by the able-bodied.’
Among those now penalised was self-employed Daniel Spiers, 64, from Richmond in south-west London, who pleaded guilty to unlawfully using a blue badge in Hammersmith on February 15 last year.
His white Citroen van was spotted by a warden parked in a RingGo parking bay with a blue badge displayed.
Checks revealed the blue badge had been cancelled 13 months earlier as the holder was deceased and the van was towed and impounded.
Spiers had to pay £350 to release his van, before telling the court the blue badge belonged to his dead friend, who he had assisted with hospital visits and shopping for twenty years.
He said: ‘I took care of him every night and took him to hospital. I parked there, yes – I apologise. I never had time for the RingGo and it was the only parking space.’
The magistrates fined Spiers £146, with £250 costs, plus a £58 victim surcharge – with chairperson Sonia Henley telling him: ‘You had the blue badge for a year and you made no effort to pay for parking your van in a restricted area.’
Nancy Chahine, 37, from Ealing in west London, had previously pleaded guilty by post to unlawfully using a blue badge to park her white Honda in Hammersmith on June 11 last year.
She was fined £250, with £554 costs, and ordered to pay a £100 victim surcharge and appeared in court to negotiate an instalment plan, which was agreed at £50 per month.
Jamie Leonard, 35, of Putney in south-west London, used a disabled badge to park his white Citroen diesel while moving home.
He pleaded guilty to unlawfully using a blue badge that had been reported stolen in Tynemouth Street, Fulham, on September 30 last year.
It had been cancelled 15 months earlier and when he returned to the vehicle Leonard was unable to give the correct name of the badge holder.
Ms Gurnani told the court: ‘The council’s case is not that he stole the blue badge, but was using it, and we have a zero tolerance policy.’
Leonard was assisted by court duty solicitor Stuart Harris, who said: ‘He explained that he was moving and parked there to make it easier to load.
‘He borrowed the badge from another and had no idea of its history and he lost his job a few weeks ago. He only had it for one night.’
Leonard was fined £146, with £250 costs, while also told to pay a £58 victim surcharge.
Electrician Khalil Mohammed Salih, 48, from North Kensington in west London, claimed he found a discarded disabled blue badge on the pavement and intended to hand it in at a post office.
However, it was visible on the dashboard of his red Toyota parked in a RingGo bay in Fulham on April 30 last year.
The badge had been stolen 15 months earlier and Salih’s RingGo parking time had expired, resulting in his vehicle being towed and impounded.
Salih told magistrates: ‘When I got back, I couldn’t find my car and the traffic warden told me they took the car.
‘I found the blue badge on the pavement and was going to drop it off at the Post Office.’
Ms Gurnani said: ‘It was displayed on the dashboard and had not been put away in the glove compartment.’
Salih pleaded guilty to unlawfully using a blue badge and was fined £113, with £200 costs while also being ordered to pay a £45 victim surcharge.
Ms Henley told him: ‘Even if you found it, you shouldn’t have it displayed in your car.’
Arriving hours late for court was jobless Onyekachi Onyebalu, 32, of Tooting in south London, whose blue VW was towed after he displayed a stolen blue badge.
The court heard the vehicle was parked in a restricted area in Tynemouth Street, Fulham, on May 23 last year and was checked by a warden.
Ms Gurnani said: ‘The case is not that he stole the blue badge, but did use a badge that was not his.
‘The vehicle was towed to a pound and Mr Onyebalu paid the release fee and admitted he was the driver.’
He pleaded guilty to unlawfully using a blue badge and was fined £40, with £250 costs as well as having to pay a £16 victim surcharge.
Onyebalu told magistrates: ‘I thought this had been dealt with a long time ago and paid £350 to get the car out. I admit that I used a blue badge that wasn’t mine, I don’t deny that.’
Several blue badge cheats did not appear, including Chelsea and Westminster Hospital neonatal nurse Emma Azzam, 32, from nearby Hammersmith.
She was alone when displaying her brother’s disabled blue badge to park her grey Vauxhall near Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush on February 20 last year.
Ms Gurnani told the court: ‘She told the officer that she was going to pick up her brother while parked in an area near the shopping centre, where there have been a lot of complaints about unlawful blue badge use.
‘She said that she was in a hurry and her brother was the blue badge holder and she would return with him in five to 10 minutes.’
After 15 minutes she had not returned and the officer called a tow truck and the car was impounded, the court heard.
The magistrates convicted her of unlawfully using a blue badge and fined the nurse £123, with £250 costs, plus a £49 victim surcharge.
West End property consultant Rafid Hanna, 59, from St John’s Wood in north-west London, pleaded guilty by post to unlawfully using a blue badge when parking for a takeaway.
The court heard he used his absent aunt’s disabled badge to park his black Mini in a restricted area in Shepherd’s Bush on October 6 last year.
Ms Gurnani said: ‘The blue badge was for a woman when the officer checked it and the defendant returned to the car alone with a takeaway.
‘He confirmed the badge holder was his aunt, who was at home in Kensington and he used the blue badge to purchase a takeaway.’
In a letter to the court, the £6,400-per-month property professional said he was running errands for his aunt and did not know it was an offence to use her disability badge.
He said, ‘I did not lie or deceive or act disrespectfully’, before being fined £492, with £554 costs, plus a £192 victim surcharge.
Kurt Garwood, 34, from Abbey Wood in north-west London, also did not appear after being caught using a stolen blue badge to park his blue Smart car for free.
The court heard the badge was displayed in Pellant Road, Fulham, on April 2 last year, 12 months after the permit had been pinched.
He was fined £220, with £250 costs, and ordered to pay a £58 victim surcharge.
Another 11 blue badge cases were either withdrawn, adjourned or given trial dates.
The first up on the day had been father-of-four Tilal Mohammed, 63, from Fulham, who pleaded guilty to unlawfully using a blue badge in Shepherd’s Bush on April 22 last year.
Mohammed’s black Nissan hybrid electric vehicle was found parked in a restricted area by an officer on patrol, with his absent autistic eight-year-old son’s blue badge displayed on the dashboard.
Ms Gurnani said: ‘The officer believed the badge was being misused because the defendant was the sole occupant of the car and admitted it was his son’s badge.
‘He said that his son was at school and he had parked to get himself a snack from Lidl. He disputed that he misused the badge and did not know it was an offence.’
The council asked for their full £554 costs in each case, but this was rarely awarded by the magistrates.
Ms Gurnani asked them: ‘Why should local taxpayers have to pay the prosecution costs? Mr Mohammed should pay the full costs of the case for using the blue badge.’
The defendant told the court: ‘I sincerely apologise, it was my fault. We have an autistic child and life is quite hard.
‘We had the paperwork and we did not look at it. I had no intention to break the law and have never been in trouble.’
Mohammed, a recent father of newborn twins, told how money was tight regarding any financial penalty because he was still repaying a Universal Credit benefits loan.
He said: ‘I did not realise the child had to be with me at all times to use the blue badge. I had just dropped him off at school.
‘Our child does not sleep at night – we have to keep him occupied and life is too frantic to sit down and check the small print. I am not familiar with the blue badge.’
Magistrate Sonia Henley told Mohammed: ‘You have been straightforward and put your hands up and pleaded guilty.
‘You are of good character and admit it was your fault and say you did not understand and only had the blue badge a couple of weeks.
‘Your life is stressful and chaotic and that is not an excuse, but is a reason that can be put into the mix.’
He was fined £40, with £200 costs, and ordered to pay a £16 victim surcharge.