A WOMAN misused her dead mother’s blue badge to avoid an £8 parking ticket.

Deborah Wright, 53, altered the expiry date on the badge and used it to park at Southampton railway station last July before travelling to London by train, Southampton magistrates heard.

But a sharp-eyed civil enforcement officer spotted that the altered date did not tally with the badge’s serial number, said Mary Kigonya, prosecuting for the city council.

Wright, of Middlefield Road, Plymouth admitted obtaining a service dishonestly and unlawful use of the blue badge.

The badge expired in 2011 but Wright tampered with it and changed 11 to 14, said Ms Kigonya.

Wright’s mother died in 2009 and she said she found the badge the day before she used it.

Wright told magistrates: “It was a spur of the moment thing on the anniversary of my mother’s birthday and death. I was very emotional. I regret it.”

Magistrates imposed a 12-month community order for 80 hours unpaid work and ordered Wright to pay £450 costs.