Blue badge fraudster must pay nearly £500

Perry Grant, 57, of Bridgeside Close, Portsmouth, admitted using his 58-year-old late wife Malee’s badge in her motability VW Caddy after she died on February 17 last year.

Now city magistrates have given him a community order with 30 days of rehabilitation activities.

He must pay £438.57 in costs to Portsmouth City Council, which brought the case to court.

Grant must also pay a £60 victim surcharge.

He pleaded guilty at a previous hearing – when he was separately ticketed for not paying the parking fee while in court.

The court heard how when confronted by city council parking enforcers outside his home he said: ‘I take it some old bag has moaned about the parking.

‘It’s because my wife has died and I’m using her badge.’

That happened on May 15 last year.

Grant had previously been seen parking in a disabled parking bay in Surrey Street, Landport, on March 15 when he said he was going to the bank. And he was given a ticket on March 25 for parking on double yellows in Surrey Street.

He pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing or controlling an article – the blue badge – for use in fraud.

Speaking to The News, Grant said he had been ‘persecuted’ because his wife died.

After the sentencing, Michael Robinson, Portsmouth City Council’s parking operations manager, said: “Fraudulent use of disabled parking passes is something we take extremely seriously. If people are illegally using blue badges we will take action and the courts continue to back us on this.”