Blue badge baddies booked
Tuesday June 1, 2010
A Fulham man who owes Hammersmith & Fulham Council £12,000 in unpaid parking tickets has been slapped with another fine – this time for using his disabled flatmate’s blue badge.
Serial ticket dodger Gary Coombes from Elbe Street was one of seven people convicted and fined on April 27 for using a friend or family member’s disabled blue badge to park illegally in the borough. The cases were heard by Deputy District Judge Brennan at West London Magistrates Court where the defendants were made to pay £5,775 in total.
Coombes was ordered to pay a fine of £1,000 for using his flatmate’s blue badge to park on September 3 outside their house. The court heard that Coombes had amassed 77 unpaid fines between April 2008 and January 2010, totalling £12,000, and had not attended an interview with the council or turned up to court on five previous occasions.
His scheduled appearance in West London Magistrates Court on April 27 was no different and, once again, Coombes was a no-show. Judge Brennan convicted Coombes in his absence and also ordered him to pay £847.50 in costs to the council and £15 in a victim surcharge, saying that the council had ‘bent over backwards to assist the defendant’.
A football fan who thought he could dodge match day parking restrictions which only allow visitors to park for a maximum of one hour was Mark Bell from Kingsdown Road, Surbiton.
He parked in Woodlawn Street, using his mother-in-law’s blue badge which allows disabled people to park for the whole match, and went to watch Fulham play against Bolton Wanderers on November 28. But, in a joint match day operation, officers from the police and the council caught him out and Bell landed himself with a £500 fine, costs of £335 and a £15 victim surcharge.
Cllr Nicholas Botterill, deputy leader and cabinet member for environment services, said: “It is despicable that these people abused the trust of their families and friends by pinching their blue badges to use for themselves. The incredible irony is that by parking in spots set aside for blue badge holders, they are taking up vital spaces that disabled people, like their own parents, rely on. They are also taking up spaces meant for resident permit holders.
“These large fines have been a small victory in the ongoing battle against parking cheats and we will continue to pursue them through the courts.”
Following several complaints from residents, the council caught Uxbridge Road post office worker Govinaind Kamlesh Narayand parking in a disabled bay outside his work using his niece’s blue badge. Narayand from Bury Avenue, Hayes, pleaded guilty to misusing the badge. He was fined £300 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £15, and costs of £430 to Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
Tanaz Atlassi from Montrose Court, South Kensington, was given a conditional discharge of one year and ordered to pay £400 in costs after she was caught parking in Lindrop Street on November 3. She admitted displaying her father’s blue badge in her car, even though he was not with her at the time.
Jeff Tarpinian from Great West Road, Hounslow, also misused his disabled father’s blue badge to park, using a photocopy of the original. He pleaded guilty but claimed he had made the photocopy because the badge had previously been stolen from his father’s car and so he had the fake one as a precaution, in case it happened again. He was handed a £100 fine and told to pay £250 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
Andrew Taylor from Abbey Orchard Street, Victoria, was given a £400 fine, and ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge and £395 in costs for parking illegally in Bagleys Lane on November 2009. He used his partner’s blue badge while he went to work.
Tamara Cruickshanks from Abercrombie House in White City, pleaded guilty to using a stolen blue badge to park in Australia Road on October 10. She was fined £100 and ordered to pay £650 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge. The illegal badge was also taken off her.
