Woman used dead mum’s parking badge (From Daily Echo)
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Woman used dead mum’s parking badge
6:00am Wednesday 20th February 2013 in Crime
Stock image of a car with a blue badge
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.
Comments(14)
Graeme Harrison
says...
8:03am Wed 20 Feb 13
townieboy wrote:How do you know that Tony's working class?
Harsh sentence when the Tony Morrow had 43 offences yesterday and just a suspended sentance. Just shows you that theres one law for the working class and one for the scum.
iwishiwaslikeyou
says...
8:19am Wed 20 Feb 13
MGRA
says...
8:35am Wed 20 Feb 13
shaun_inuk
says...
9:20am Wed 20 Feb 13
Linesman
says...
9:51am Wed 20 Feb 13
That must have been the day that a swarm of pigs was seen flying over Southampton.
Niel
says...
10:06am Wed 20 Feb 13
ohec
says...
11:44am Wed 20 Feb 13
Linesman
says...
12:46pm Wed 20 Feb 13
ohec wrote:I agree. A minimum fine of £500 for a 'one off' misuse of a blue badge, but do you really believe that it took Deborah Wright more than TWO YEARS to find her mother's blue badge, and that she used it ONLY ONCE?
As far as i am concerned the sentence was correct and a minimum £500 fine for all misuse of blue badges should be the norm.
I think that she got off light, and my betting is that, by using the blue badge, she saved more in parking charges than she was fined.
ohec
says...
2:00pm Wed 20 Feb 13
Wheeliebin
says...
2:54pm Wed 20 Feb 13
The idea of the badge is to enable DISABLED people to park conveniently near to where ever they are going. Anyone abusing the badge should expect the law to come down on them hard.
Those who abuse the badge should be sent on a course to experience what it's like to be disabled. Then maybe they would not do it.
rightway
says...
5:59pm Wed 20 Feb 13
When was the last time a genuine disabled person was seen getting out of a car displaying a blue badge. For the majority of blue badge holders its simply a way of avoiding parking charges, or because their to lazy to walk.
The whole system needs to be overhauled and only those deemed genuine should be given a badge and even then they should pay like the rest of us.
wake up
says...
6:22pm Wed 20 Feb 13
kiddynamite
says...
2:04pm Thu 28 Feb 13
townieboy says...
6:16am Wed 20 Feb 13