originally publish by Maya George
A council worker who used her mum’s expired blue badge to park in a disabled bay outside her work has lost her job after being caught out.
Katie Wilson-Dean ‘stupidly decided’ to park in a disabled space at the Eastleigh Borough Council car park in Romsey Road before going to a work meeting in Eastleigh House.
The now-sacked council worker used the badge without her 77-year-old cancer sufferer mum’s knowledge.
Wilson-Dean, of Coniston Gardens, worked for Eastleigh Borough Council at the time of the incident in August last year.
Prosecuting on behalf of Hampshire County Council, Tim Spender said: “An enforcement officer came across the defendant’s vehicle parked in a disabled parking bay in Romsey Road.
“The officer noticed a Hampshire County Council disabled badge and discovered that it belonged to a 77-year-old woman, expired in April 2022, and it was not valid for use.
“He spoke to the owner who confirmed the valid badge was inside her own vehicle on her driveway.
“The officer proceeded to issue a penalty notice.
“The defendant saw the officer and asked ‘why have you given me a ticket?’.
“He asked her to produce the badge to which she responded ‘yeah.’
“She then entered the vehicle and drove away from the area.”
The officer reported the incident to the borough council after seeing she had an item with a council logo, Mr Spender said.
Wilson-Dean later lied to the officer by saying she parked in the disabled bay to pick her mum up from a dentist appointment and had just turned up on the wrong day.
But it later transpired she parked in the disabled space as she knew ‘she was going to go over the two-hour parking limit’ as she was going to a meeting.
Mitigating, Nigel Couzens described her actions as ‘a very silly mistake’.
He said: “This matter has hung over her for some seven months now.
“She stupidly decided to park in a disabled bay using her mum’s badge.
“She panicked when she spoke to the officer and drove off. She later saw sense and admitted what she had done.
“The fact she has lost her job adds to her enormous responsibility as a mother and carer to her mum.
“This is a very silly mistake.”
Couzens entered two guilty pleas on behalf of Wilson-Dean after he told magistrates: “My client is excused as she is too distraught after being photographed by the press.”
She pleaded guilty to using a person’s expired disabled badge and failing to produce a disabled badge.
Sentencing, the chair of the magistrates’ said: “We recognise that your client is full of remorse.
“This was a ‘moment of madness’, as she described it.
“But there’s a crime that was committed here and there is a guilty plea on both charges.
“It’s clear as well that in this ‘moment of madness’, she considered making up a story which exacerbated her situation. She unlawfully used the blue badge.”
Wilson-Dean was ordered to pay £120 for the guilty plea, a £48 victim surcharge, and £135 to Eastleigh Borough Council.
This amounts to a total of £303 for a collection order.
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