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West London council worker caught using fake disabled Blue Badge to go shopping

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Hammersmith & Fulham Council has the highest rate of Blue Badge fraud prosecutions in the capital.

Credit: Article from My London – 17th December 2018

Image: Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s Specialist Blue Badge Investigation Team.

A council worker was caught using a faked Blue Badge on her car parked at a shopping mall – which was only a 10-minute walk from her home.

The woman who has not been named by Hammersmith & Fulham Council, resigned after the authority prosecuted her for defrauding the disability parking system, and she was later convicted of fraud.

In fact Hammersmith & Fulham has the highest number of Blue Badge prosecutions in the capital.

Earlier this year, an investigating officer was checking disabled parking bays in Bulwer Street, next to the Westfield Shopping Centre in White City, when he spotted the fake badge on display.

Upon closer inspection, he saw the badge was stamped to show it was issued by Ealing, yet when he checked the badge’s serial number on the national database, it actually matched one issued by Barnsley Council that had expired in April 2016.

The officer waited for the driver to return to the vehicle and confronted the woman as she was about to unlock her car.

She handed over the badge and was cautioned, with the officer telling her that her case would be passed to the council’s lawyers for action.

 

Hundreds of fake Blue Badges are seized every year. Many abusers are prosecuted for fraud.

Caption: Hundreds of fake Blue Badges are seized every year. Councils are employing specialist teams to crack down on Blue Badge fraud and take perpetrators to court.

 

But while they were preparing the case, it became clear the woman was a council employee who lived in the borough, where she held a valid parking permit.

Not only that, according to Google Maps, the walk from her home to the mall would have taken her less than 10 minutes, the council papers said.

She pleaded guilty to fraud at Westminster Magistrates Court on August 8, and was sentenced to a home curfew order between the hours of 8.15pm – 6am, had an electronic tag fitted for a month and was fined £560.

View full article on My London