Drivers who misuse blue badges face £1,000 fines

The practice has lead to calls for a public awareness campaign to detect abuse and show misuse is anti-social behaviour which hits both the public and the disabled.

The fine warning came as health bosses told councillors an estimated 3,000 people misuse the special parking permits which are issued to people who cannot walk more than 80 metres.

Fraudsters use badges issued to people who have died or display fake and forged badges.

The most common misuse includes continuing to use permits that are no longer valid, been reported as ‘lost’ and ‘stolen or use it without the holder’s permission or when the owner is not in the the vehicle.

Council officers told members of the health and adult social care scrutiny committee the government’s audit commission estimates nationally over 20 per cent of blue badges are fraudulently used by motorists.

In Dudley this means as many as 3,320 of the 16,598 special parking permits issued in the borough are at risk of being misused by able-bodied drivers.

Health bosses admitted the authority does not employ staff to stop abuse and instead trains traffic enforcement officers to report individual cases when issuing parking tickets.

But they added they share data with other local authorities and government agencies like the Department of Work and Pensions to detect fraudulent use.

Matt Bowsher, director of adult social care for Dudley, calling for more publicity to highlight the problem, told the committee: “I don’t think the public is aware of the range of data resources we can stitch together to check to see if someone is entitled or not.

“We need to communicate the consequences not just to the council in cost but also to the wider public in the waste of resources caused by misuse and of course the consequences to disabled people.

“So we will be working through this and try to make people see this as anti-social behaviour as any other.”

In total, the blue badge scheme costs the council over £187,000 a year.