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£700 penalty for father who used daughter’s Blue Badge to visit the gym (8 August 2017)

Date: 08/08/2017
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, £700 penalty for father who used daughter’s Blue Badge to visit the gym

A man who fraudulently used his disabled daughter’s Blue Badge to park when he visited the gym has been prosecuted by Central Bedfordshire Council.

On 9 December 2016, Matthew Dorgu, 48, of Ridgeway in Kensworth was caught as part of a Central Bedfordshire Council operation tackling Blue Badge fraud.

When officers checked a car parked in a spot reserved for Blue Badge holders outside Dunstable Leisure Centre that day, they found the permit was for a child.

In an interview under caution on 24 January 2017, Dorgu admitted wrongly using the badge to attend the gym without his daughter being present.

At Luton Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday 1 August 2017, he admitted Blue Badge fraud and was fined £440, ordered to pay £250 costs, with a £44 victim surcharge.

Central Bedfordshire Council’s Executive Member for Corporate Resources and Deputy Council Leader, Councillor Richard Wenham, said:

“There is a terrible irony in that Mr Dorgu potentially tried to save walking a few metres – and illegally parked in a space reserved for Blue Badge holders when he was attending the gym, anyway.

“Even it if was to avoid paying for parking, that has now cost him dear.

“I hope that this acts as a salutary lesson to anyone else thinking of committing Blue Badge fraud.”


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