Another motorist has appeared in court for wrongly using blue disabled parking badges.
Chelsea shopkeeper Phaedra Haggar Betto admitted to using her late husband’s two disabled parking badges, and was fined £2,525 at Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court.
The 53-year-old, from Ponsonby Road, Wandsworth, was spotted using the badges to park her car when going to her shop, Pascalou, on Fulham Road.
After receiving information that Mr Betto had died, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council ’s anti-fraud service found that Haggar Betto was still using the badges and that she had also received a number of penalty charge notices for incorrect parking.
She admitted to investigators that she used her husband’s disabled parking badges for over a year after his death to avoid paying for parking and for the convenience of being able to park outside her shop.
A council spokesman said: "This was a deliberate and sustained misuse of a disabled parking badge.
"These badges are for the use of people with genuine disabilities and where we uncover misuse we will take appropriate legal action.
"As a result of her actions Mrs Haggar Betto now has to pay a considerable fine and has acquired a criminal record."
The defendant, who was charged under Section 6 of the Fraud Act was also made to pay court costs at the hearing on Tuesday (July 5).
Earlier this week getwestlondon reported how a chauffeur was sentenced for using his disabled client's badge.
He blamed it on a 'lapse in judgement'.
