Prison sentence for man caught using stolen Blue Badge

A man who used a stolen Blue Badge to park in a restricted bay in Walthamstow, north-east London, has been jailed for 28 days.

Khurram Butt was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court after being found guilty of making a false representation under the Fraud Act 2006.

Butt was caught after Waltham Forest council responded to complaints from residents about parking abuse. The council’s Blue Badge counter fraud team, supported by special police constables from Waltham Forest Metropolitan Police, carried out patrols in the Erskine Road area near Walthamstow Market. The patrol identified the stolen Blue Badge but, with officers unable to track down the driver, the vehicle was removed and impounded. Butt was arrested when he attended the pound later that day to retrieve the car.

It was later established that Butt was working at Walthamstow Market at the time. During the trial it transpired that Butt, originally from Pakistan, had overstayed in the UK on a student visa. His current status is now being reviewed by the Home Office.

Clyde Loakes, Waltham Forest’s deputy leader and cabinet member for environment, said: “It is a quite frankly despicable act to take advantage of people with disabilities in this way, and I am glad that the court came down on this individual with a custodial sentence.

“People who use stolen, fake or lost Blue Badges are essentially stealing the much needed parking spaces that allow disabled people to park close to local shops and services. It is needless to say that we will seek prosecution against anyone we catch abusing the Blue Badge system in Waltham Forest.”

In the past year Waltham Forest’s Blue Badge counter fraud team has seized 168 Blue Badges that were being misused. During that time 13 people have been successfully prosecuted by the council for misusing a Blue Badge. There are a number of other ongoing cases where court action is pending, said the council.

Figures released by the Local Government Association show that the Blue Badge thefts in England have trebled over a three-year period. There were 2,056 cases of theft recorded in 2015 nationally compared with 1,756 in 2014 and 656 in 2013.