Eight people have been taken to court and fined for fraudulently using other people’s disabled parking badges.

The fraudsters were caught misusing Blue Badge permits, which actually belonged to friends or relatives, to park their own vehicles in disabled spaces.

The permits can only be used if the disabled person is either driving the vehicle or a passenger being dropped-off or picked-up in that location.

In one of the cases, the genuine holder of the Blue Badge was hundreds of miles away in Northern Ireland while his daughter Angeli McDowall, 37, of Trinity Road, Tooting Bec, used the badge to go shopping in Clapham Junction.

Bank worker Jashree Parmar, 61, of York Hill in West Norwood, was using her mother’s badge to occupy a disabled parking space in Balham, while working in the town centre.

She pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay £1,230 in fines and court costs, along the £165 it cost to recover her car after it was towed away.

Another bank worker, Saima Ahmed, 38, from Green Lane, Norbury, had to pay the same amount in fines, costs and tow charges after her car was removed from Laitwood Road in Balham.

She was using her mother’s badge to park near work.

Hospital worker Barrington Fairman-Campbell, 58, from Leander Road, Thornton Heath, pleaded guilty and ordered to pay fines and costs of £1,230 plus the £165 tow charge after using his wife’s badge to park in Fountain Road, Tooting, while at work at St George’s Hospital.

Tube worker Ganett Phiri, 40, of Coulsdon, was using a friend’s badge to park in Boundaries Road.

He pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay £1,230 on top of the tow charge of £165.

Fadila Ramzi, 60, of Franciscan Road, Tooting, was regularly using her husband’s badge to park in Ramsden Road in Balham while shopping.

She was told to pay £670 in fines and costs along with the £165 tow charge.

Shop worker Babar Ahmad, 38, from Manor Road in Mitcham, was using his father’s badge to park near his workplace in Upper Tooting Road. He was ordered to pay £1,530 on top of the £165 tow charge.

Rampall Raj, of Rosemary Avenue in Hounslow, was fined and ordered to pay court costs of £933 after being caught using his mother’s badge to park in Hampton Wick following a tip off from a member of the public.

Wandsworth’s transport spokesman Cllr Jonathan Cook said: “Sadly there are many people who try to fiddle the system in this way. The blue badge scheme exists to help disabled people get out and about, drive to work, visit friends or go shopping.

“It was not invented to give their relatives a passport to free parking nor allow selfish able-bodied people to use designated spaces genuinely needed by drivers who have a disability.”

All the cases were heard in Lavender Hill Magistrates' Court on March 21 except Mr Raj's case, which was on March 10. 

Anyone who has information about drivers misusing a blue badge in any of the five boroughs can email swlfp@wandsworth.gov.uk or call (020) 8871 8383.