Blue Badge cheat fined £7500

Humayun Reza, a former director of the now closed Leamington Nursing Home in Bruntsfield, used a badge copied from genuine permits issued to the care home by the city council.

Fraud investigators in Edinburgh said today they had suspected Reza, of Spylaw Road, of abusing the blue badges meant for the residents of his home, but had been unable to collect enough evidence to bring the case to court.

He was caught in February last year after his Peugeot was impounded when he parked in a disabled bay in Camden, north London. In court last week was fined 7515.

Gordon Catchlove, Edinburgh's blue badge fraud investigator, said Mr Reza's actions had been "despicable".

He said: "Basically, he has got his just desserts. Back in 2007 we received a complaint that a badge was seen on vehicles outside his home.

"We spent years trying to catch them being used by members of his family. But if it's being misused, we have to see it being misused."

Reza's nursing home did have three genuine badges, but council officials said he had created a fake by photocopying and sticking two of the real permits together.

He had pleaded not guilty to the charge of using a fake badge, saying he had not known it to be a fake and that his handyman had used the car to transport an elderly woman to her relatives in London.

He also claimed that he had travelled to London on the same day in a different vehicle with his business partner to transport furniture, with his handyman contacting him that day to report the car missing.

He was found guilty after trial at Blackfriars Crown Court last week, with judge Mr B Carr QC telling him that his offence had been indicative of "dishonest and fraudulent" conduct.

But the judge said he had taken into account that Reza was a person of "good character" who had built up a successful business.

Blue badges allow free parking for people with disabilities who travel either as drivers or passengers, and there are currently 22,000 blue badges in use across Edinburgh. However, parking bosses believe that up to 70 per cent on display in the city are not used by rightful owners.

Last year Reza had an application to turn his former nursing home into a budget hotel thrown out by planners after neighbours objected. Residents of Leamington Terrace said the transformation of the former nursing home into a 29-bedroom hotel would have created noise, disruption and traffic chaos. They feared it would be used as a long-term residence after Reza also asked for a licence for it to become a House of Multiple Occupation..