Pensioner must pay £600 for using late husband’s blue badge

A WARRINGTON pensioner will have to pay more than £600 in fines and costs after using her late husband’s disabled parking badge to avoid paying parking charges.
Mary Welsby, aged 67, of Roman Road, Stockton Heath pleaded guilty to three offences when her case came before Warrington Magistrates.
She admitted failing to return a blue badge to Warrington Borough Council when her husband, the registered owner, died in October 2015, using the badge to park in disabled bays on a council car park and not paying the parking charge.
She was fined £322 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £32 and costs of £300.
The court was told that In 2016 Warrington Borough Council announced a ‘Blue Badge Amnesty’ to give residents the opportunity to hand in any badges that they weren’t entitled to use.
After the hearing, Cllr Russ Bowden, the council’s lead member for corporate services, said: “It is for precisely this reason that we held an amnesty for disabled badges. We wanted to make sure that people had the chance to come clean.
“It is unacceptable that some people continue to misuse the blue badge scheme as there are people who have a genuine need to use these designated parking spaces. It is a crime to use a badge that does not belong to you or to alter the information printed on the badge and people using them fraudulently will be prosecuted.”