Over the past 2 weeks Camden Council has had unprecedented success in prosecuting the first in a line of offenders for Disabled Blue Badge fraud*. On Friday 30^th April 2004 Mr Ali of Ali & Sons, 134 Drummond Street London NW1 and Mr Seng Kah Lim of 17 The Dell Wembley HA0 3EJ were both convicted of handling stolen goods and misusing them to obtain free parking. Magistrates at Highbury Corner gave Mr Ali (who pleaded) a £1000 fine with £75 costs while Mr Lim (who requested a trial and was found guilty) received a £1,500 fine and paid £165 costs.

This is among the highest penalty known to have been issued in relation to a crime directly related to the misuse of disabled Blue Badges by a local authority and Camden Council hope that this trend for high visibility prosecution will continue for as long as it takes to deter potential cheats from propagating the system of thefts from disabled persons’ vehicles.

Although this was not the first successful prosecution for disabled badges by Camden Council, it was the first time the authority acted without Police involvement and the first time they have outsourced their legal support for a particular type of case.

Messrs Hodge Jones & Allen of Camden Road represented by Nigel Richardson are currently working in partnership with the council to bring about a quick succession of convictions solely related to parking based on RIPA authorised video evidence gathered by dedicated fraud investigators. 

At time of press there are at least another 10 cases currently awaiting court dates for similar offences.

Produced by Adrian Weatherill ACFO
Fraud & Prosecution Officer
London Borough of Camden