A driver who used a disabled parking badge he claimed he had found in the street has been fined.
Lukaski Galinski, of Middle Road, Shoreham, West Sussex, was caught using the badge three times in Brighton and Hove, and given parking tickets – two of which he tried to appeal.
But last week, he was fined a total of £300 and ordered to pay £450 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.
Len Batten, prosecuting on behalf of Brighton and Hove City Council, told the court the owner of the blue badge reported it lost last July and the badge was cancelled.
Parking attendants subsequently saw the badge displayed on Mr Galinski’s vehicle on three separate occasions in Brighton and Hove.
When police confiscated the blue badge he told them he had found it in the street.
Councillor Ian Davey, Brighton & Hove City Council’s lead member for transport, said: “The blue badge scheme is intended to make sure parking spaces are there for people who genuinely need them.
“Disabled people rely on blue badges to enable them to get out and about easily, and we are stepping up action and working with Sussex Police and East Sussex County Council to crackdown on misuse of blue badges.”
The council recently secured £183,000 of Government funding to crackdown on misuse of blue badges and free up spaces for disabled people.
why do they need £183,000 of taxpayers’ money to “crack down” on this? If traffic wardens (sorry, “parking enforcement operatives”) just did their bloody jobs they’d catch bazillions of them.