Blue badge cheat fined

COUNCIL bosses have continued their blitz on “blue badge” fraud after a man was fined for using his father’s disability badge.

Stuart Cheetham of Poplar Avenue, Thrybergh, was fined £35 and ordered to pay £50 costs and a £15 victim surcharge after pleading guilty at Rotherham Magistrates’ Court to using the parking pass on February 25 in Wellgate.

In mitigation, Cheetham said that his father was usually with him in the vehicle, but was unable to accompany him that day because his knee was swollen.

Cheetham said that he had to go to the bank on his father’s behalf and, after hitting congestion on Wellgate, had decided to park in the disabled space so that he could then walk to the bank and get back to his father as soon as possible.

Following the hearing, Rotherham Borough Council’s Cabinet member for Streetpride,

Cllr Richard Russell, said that he hoped this latest prosecution would act as a deterrent to anyone considering fraudulent use of a blue badge. "This is Rotherham's third successful prosecution this year and we hope that those motorists who continue to fraudulently use these badges will take note,” he said.

“Only the genuinely disabled have the right to  use blue badges and if we find evidence of this kind of mean-spirited fraud we will prosecute.”

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