Blue badge cheats have been fined for their selfish parking in a town centre.
David Lonergan and Peter Richardson were ordered to pay hundreds of pounds after pleading guilty to unlawfully use of badges belonging to disabled members of their family.
David Stickley, prosecuting on behalf of Kirklees Council, told Kirklees magistrates: “Blue badge fraud appears to be a victimless crime.
“But for every able-bodied person who misuses a badge, there’s a person who has a genuine disability who is forced to park further away than they need to be.
“The annual cost of blue badge fraud is £46m so not only are disabled people inconvenienced but it affects the revenue stream as people should be paying for parking.”
Lonergan, 57, was caught parking in a disabled parking space in Whitehall Way car park in Dewsbury on May 27 by a council civil enforcement officer.
He had a blue badge but this belonged to his fiancée and he admitted that she was no longer with him in the town centre.
He told magistrates: “I’m really sorry for the inconvenience caused - it was a silly thing to do.”
Richardson, of Coal Pit Mews in Batley, was not present in court but did plead guilty to the same offence.
This time he used a disabled person’s badge to park at Dewsbury Sports Centre on April 1.
However, the badge belonged to his son who was not with him at the time.
Mr Stickley told magistrates: “He admitted that it was his son’s badge and that he simply did it so that he could park closer to the entrance of the sports centre.”
Lonergan, of Fielding Court in Leeds, was ordered to pay £90 fine, £403 prosecution and council investigation costs and £30 victim surcharge.
Magistrates said that Richardson will have to pay £111 fine as well as £518 costs and £30 victim surcharge.
