Bedford Borough Council investigators have secured prosecutions against four drivers for illegally using disabled parking Blue Badges in the town centre.
The drivers were ordered to pay more than £3,400 in court fines and costs following an enforcement crackdown last December.
Stolen badges
Mihai Codita (29), of Orchard Drive, Kempston, displayed a stolen Blue Badge on Maitland Street in December while working at the nearby Domino’s Pizza takeaway.
Codita claimed a homeless person gave him the badge and blamed local parking pressures, but investigators discovered it had been stolen from a car in July.
He appeared at Luton Magistrates’ Court on 4 August, pleading guilty to an offence under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and two offences under the Fraud Act 2006.
Magistrates sentenced Codita to a 12-month community order with 100 hours of unpaid work, alongside £1,000 in costs and a £114 victim surcharge.
A second delivery driver at the same Midland Road takeaway, 38-year-old Vivek Gopalapillai Dhananjayan, known as Vivek Gopal, was also prosecuted for badge misuse.
Gopal, of Emmer Drive, Wixams, pleaded guilty on 28 August to displaying a stolen badge near Maitland Street and Midland Road.
He was ordered to pay a total of £300 in fines, surcharges and court costs.
Child badge
Council investigators uncovered two further cases of Blue Badge fraud in the town centre during the same enforcement blitz.
Self-employed counsellor Alina Wazna (36), of Grosvenor Court, The Avenue, Bedford, illegally used a child’s Blue Badge in Riverside Car Park during term time.
Council checks confirmed her child was in school at the time, and Wazna pleaded guilty at Luton Magistrates’ Court on 28 August and received a £412 court order.
In a separate case, Dominik Hornak, of Spencer Road, Bedford, displayed his stepfather’s expired badge on Saint Loyes Street.
Hornak did not attend Luton Magistrates’ Court on 4 August, but the court convicted him in his absence and ordered him to pay £1,642.80.
Council warning
Cllr Marc Frost (Conservative, Wixams & Wilstead), portfolio holder for financial services and financial sustainability) said: “Blue Badges exist to help people with genuine mobility needs park near to where they need to go.
“Every time a badge is misused, it takes away a parking space from someone who really needs it and denies the Council revenue that funds local services.
“Council officers estimate that the misuse of a single Blue Badge can cost the Council around £1,000 a year in lost parking revenue – on top of the impact on genuinely disabled residents who are left without a space.
“These prosecutions show that we take Blue Badge fraud seriously, and we will continue to carry out enforcement operations and pursue offenders through the courts.”
Bedford Borough Council confirmed its investigation team will continue regular enforcement operations across the Borough to target parking fraud.
