Four Leeds parking badge cheats must pay £1,000

Three were prosecuted by Leeds City Council after trying to use blue badges belonging to people who had died.

Rajinder Singh, 29, of Newton Park Drive, Chapel Allerton; Rachel Daniels, 21, of Alan Crescent, Halton; and Arfan Akhtar, 26, of Tagor Court, Bradford, all admitted unlawfully using a blue badge when they appeared before magistrates at Leeds.

On April 29, civil enforcement officers checked a badge being displayed in a car parked in a pay and display bay in Leeds. They discovered the badge holder had died in 2012.

Checks led the officers to the vehicle owner, who said Singh had been the driver at the time.

On 14 May, checks on a parked vehicle displaying a blue badge revealed that Daniels had illegally used the badge of a person who had died in 2010.

Singh and Daniels were handed conditional discharges and ordered to each pay a £15 victim surcharge. Singh must pay £310 in costs and Daniels must pay £110.

Akhtar, who on March 13 and July 10 this year used a blue badge belonging to someone who had died in 2012, was fined £140 and must also pay a victim surcharge of £20 and £100 in costs.

Arthur Benn, of Aire Quay, Hunslet, tried to use a genuine blue badge to park in a disabled bay on May 22. As the badge holder wasn’t present he was using the badge illegally.

Benn was fined £260 and ordered to pay £150 in costs and a £26 victim surcharge.

Coun Mark Dobson, of Leeds City Council, said: “Taking up spaces that should be available for people with a genuine need is dishonest and unfair. We can’t and won’t tolerate the blue badge system being abused.

“If you are not entitled to use a blue badge then these cases should serve as a severe warning.”

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