As the founder of a chain of cosmetic dentists, Dr Chirag Patel is hardly short of money
The 32-year-old has a £2million house in a smart London suburb and a fleet of luxury cars
But Dr Patel was caught using a dead man’s disabled blue badge to park his £140,000 red Ferrari for free.
He was seen leaving the car with the permit yards from his practice – part of a chain of ten worth £2million.
The badge had been issued to his business partner’s father Virendra Patel, who had died in 2008.
It had been ‘sitting around the office’, according to Dr Patel’s lawyer Michael Levy, until he put it in his Ferrari California.
Officials from Wandsworth Council filmed him six times using the disabled badge last December in Putney, South-West London.
The dentist claimed it was a mix-up with his £540 business parking permit because he had only just sold his Bentley to buy the Ferrari.
He admitted two charges of misusing the badge but has denied a more serious charge of fraud.
This carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail and conviction could lead to being struck off.
Yesterday Mr Levy told the Daily Mail: ‘The council is just being ridiculous and heavy-handed.
‘Dr Patel was in the process of selling his Bentley to buy the Ferrari and the logbooks were being changed over.
‘He was waiting for the business permit and so used the blue badge on the six days over two weeks in early December.’
A Wandsworth Council spokesman said: ‘Using a dead person’s badge when you’re able to afford a Ferrari is particularly objectionable.
‘Abuse of the blue badge system is rife and it’s crying out to be reformed.
‘Most of these unscrupulous drivers use an elderly or disabled relative’s badge just to save a few pennies in parking charges.’
Dr Patel was seen parking all day just off Putney High Street where motorists should normally park for only two hours.
There is a multi-storey car park nearby costing about £15 a day.
At South Western Magistrates’ Court in London, Mr Levy said: ‘In October 2009, Dr Patel purchased for himself a business permit that entitled him to park in business bays in the borough.
‘He changed cars on November 30, selling the car he had and buying a new one.
‘At the end of November, beginning of December, he displayed a blue badge disabled permit that belonged to his partner’s late father that was sitting in the office.
‘He never parked in a disabled bay and he had pleaded guilty to misuse of the blue badge. Now it is an issue of dishonesty.’
Dr Patel, whose 31-year-old wife is called Meghna, co-founded the Perfect Smile cosmetic dentistry company with his partner Palvesh Patel in 2007.
The company has practices throughout South-West London and boasts of ‘premier’ cosmetic services which have featured on television programmes such as Extreme Makeover.
Dr Patel, who lives in the London suburb of Kingston, qualified from The Royal London Hospital and worked in the US and France before returning to the UK, where he specialises in dentAl implants.
His trial was adjourned for legal argument until next month.
The council spokesman added: ‘Since we have been targeting those drivers who abuse blue badges, in Wandsworth alone we have successfully prosecuted 360 motorists for 1,388 offences.’
This has brought just under £428,000 in fines and costs into the public purse, he said.
The Blue Badge Scheme applies to on-street parking and enables users to park for free and for as long as they need at parking meters and pay-and-display machines.
They are also exempt from the capital’s £8 Congestion Charge. They are issued to people with severe mobility problems and last for three years.