Originally publish By Keri Trigg
A woman has been ordered to pay nearly £2,500 after using her son’s blue badge to park in a disabled bay near her workplace seven times in two months.
Marija Edwards, 48, admitted her actions, telling Telford Magistrates’ Court she was “appalled”.
Mike Davies, prosecuting for Shropshire Council, said she used a bay on Beeches Lane, Shrewsbury, for whole days at a time.
He said Edwards’ son was not present in the vehicle on any of the seven days.
But when interviewed under caution, the court was told, Edwards, of Park Road, Whitchurch, claimed her son was being dropped off with her before the end of the parking session.
“By that time she would have been in situ for seven hours, so there was a lack of forethought by her insofar as what she was doing,” Mr Davies said.
He told Monday’s hearing that her employer had said she would have to pay for her own parking for work, so “there was some financial benefit” in using disabled bays.
“There is an abuse of the blue badge system currently and that’s why Shropshire Council has been pursuing these matters quite vigorously,” he added.
Magistrates imposed an £840 fine and a £150 victim surcharge and told Edwards to pay a £1,500 contribution towards the council’s costs.
“This was a flagrant abuse and misuse of the blue badge in a system designed to benefit those who really need it,” the court found.
Edwards did not attend the hearing but in a letter read to the court said she could not express strongly enough “how genuinely sorry and remorseful I am”.
“I was trying to juggle my full-time work with my family caring responsibilities and I was struggling, but felt I had to carry on with working due to the cost-of-living crisis,” she said.
The letter added: “I am appalled that my behaviour meant I potentially denied parking spaces to disabled persons.”