FEATURE BLUE BADGE FRAUD
Can youAFFORD the fraud?
Blue badge abuse is on the increase – but it seems it’s the more affluent members of society who are mainly to blame. Barry Wood investigates
nyone who’s ever suggested that disability blue badge abuse is victim- free should take note of a particularly nasty offence heard recently at Richmond Magistrates’ Court, London. A seriously ill Wandsworth woman was being treated in hospital when her car was broken into and her disability badge stolen. It caused her a great amount of distress and inconvenience, so when that same badge was discovered on a black Lexus belonging to a Tooting shop owner, Anil Omar Shah, it was obvious he had some explaining to do. How did Shah come across the stolen badge? His answer was as tiresomely familiar as it was implausible. It had been handed to him in his shop – yet he could not explain why he made no attempt to return it or find the owner.
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Pleading guilty, he claimed he was a respected member of the community. ‘I’ve made a silly mistake,’ he said. Chris Green, one half of Wandsworth’s two-man permit fraud investigation team, insists the willingness of some drivers to pay for stolen, altered or counterfeit badges creates a market that ensures that the genuinely disabled are at risk.
Middle-class crime
Informed, educated drivers used a
myriad of extenuating circumstances to get themselves off the hook
32 NOVEMBER 2012
Another myth surrounding blue badge abuse and fraud is that it is a crime carried out by those on the lowest rungs of society. As Chris and his fellow enforcement officer Keith Parcel have discovered, it is very much an offence favoured by the better-off. ‘This is not a poor person’s crime,’ says
Chris. ‘The culprits are often relatively well-off, middle-class professionals who have much to lose. They should know better.’ Vehicles such as Mercedes, BMWs,
Porsches and Audis are regularly towed away
by Wandsworth’s enforcement team during investigations, and one statistic stands out: of more than 500 vehicles impounded in Wandsworth because of blue badge abuse, only two have never been reclaimed because they were not worth the £270 release fee. The financial incentive is clear. Over just a few years, a blue badge can be worth up to £10,000 in central London, used to fraudulently park in disability bays and on yellow lines.
It was in 2005 that Wandsworth decided that the scale of abuse was so high that action was needed. The parking department estimated that 80 per cent of badges were being abused. Previous to this, councils rarely prosecuted because the cases were so difficult to prove.
When confronted as to why the vehicle did not contain the disabled person to whom the badge was issued, some drivers claimed they had dropped the badge-holder off ‘around the corner’. Informed, educated drivers and their lawyers used a myriad of extenuating
www.britishparking.co.uk
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