Blue badge con is left red-faced

05 February 2010

AN able-bodied woman has been fined for fraudulently using her father-in-law's disabled blue badge.

Gita Ladva, 43, of Priory Hill, Wembley, pleaded guilty at Brent Magistrates' Court and was fined £350 and made to pay £350 in costs, as well as a £15 victim surcharge.

Brent Council's Audit and Investigation team swooped when a member of the public spotted her displaying the badge in her car before walking to Preston Road underground station.

They discovered that Mrs Ladva was using the badge of her disabled father-in-law, Lalji Ladva, to park in Preston Waye, the nearest disabled access parking to the tube station.

Despite her husband Dhiresh Ladva initially claiming that his wife had used the badge when travelling with her father-in-law on the tube, further inquiries revealed that any travel by the father-in-law could have been traced through his use of his Freedom Pass, and eventually Mrs Ladva confessed she had misused the badge.

Brent Council deputy leader, Cllr Bob Blackman, member for resources, said: "While this may seem to some like a trivial matter, Blue Badge fraud deprives those in genuine need of a parking space and cheating the taxpayer out of parking revenue, which is often used to pay for road improvements.

"Although these cases tend to be dealt with as one off instances, the likelihood is that those who are using borrowed blue badges do so on a daily basis.

"The council takes this type of fraud seriously and will seek criminal convictions in the hope that this serves as a deterrent and we thank the public for reporting such cases to us."

To report suspected fraud please contact the council's fraud hotline number on 0800 937 777 or email investigations@brent.gov.uk

sofia.mitra-thakur@archant.co.uk