One legged driver cheats blue badge system

Honest John Back Room » Legal matters
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Fri 26 Sep 2008 09:02
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - Nsar
This is just odd.

Three questions

1. Why did she do it?
2. Why did they bring the prosecution?
3 Has she got a moustache?

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1069151_one...m

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 09:11
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - Big Bad Dave
1. A disabled mother of two disabled children might just not have found that moment to get around to applying for her badge. I'm the kind of person who never gets around to doing anything so I could understand that.

2. No idea, I wouldn't have.

3. It's clearly a goatie.

Edited by Big Bad Dave on 26/09/2008 at 09:12

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 09:29
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - Armitage Shanks {p}
Just how dim can these enforcement twits be?

"It is understood she was not using her crutches and did not appear to be disabled when she was stopped."

I would have no way of knowing if the driver of a car was missing one of their legs below the knee and I have never ever seen anybody using a pair of crutches while driving a car! Expensive business, this going to court! Further down the report someone got a £100 fine for a blue badge offence and had £375 costs imposed!


Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 09:35
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - welshlad
we appear to be living in the age of zero discrestion(SP!)
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 09:48
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - moonshine {P}
we appear to be living in the age of zero discrestion(SP!)


>>Just how dim can these enforcement twits be?

Luckily for us we an independant justice system - the judges and magistrates are there to protect us from injustice (and to serve justice). In this case all is well as the judge gave an absolute discharge.

Agree that the prosecution should never have been bought in the first place though.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 09:54
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - CQ
Having brought the case to court the authorities have gained more "advertising" or awareness to their cause, people notice, talk about it, etc.

Edited by CQ on 26/09/2008 at 09:55

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 10:08
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - Armitage Shanks {p}
All they have drawn people's attention to is their their own incompetence. It is interesting to note that an absolute discharge counts as a conviction - news to me!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 10:22
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - ifithelps
The absolute discharge is only the sentence of the court.

The defendant would have been convicted by her guilty plea, or after a trial.

It's a bit like saying: "I didn't realise five years in prison counts as a conviction."

Clearly, an absolute discharge is a low-level sentence, which gives you an idea what the bench thought of it.

A bind over - often imposed for minor violence - is not a conviction.

The defendant does not admit anything, he/she merely agrees to be bound over.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 16:22
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - L'escargot
It is interesting
to note that an absolute discharge counts as a conviction - news to me!


It's confirmed by www.crimeinfo.org/uk/dictionary/. tinyurl.com/47p3ek
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 9 Aug 2011 23:55
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - one-leg amanda

did not know i had a conviction only a discharge to i read the article the following day in Manchester Evening News.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 10:53
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - FotheringtonThomas
Agree that the prosecution should never have been bought in the first place though.


"chairman of the bench John Bulger, told her: "First and foremost we have to say it was right and proper for the case to be brought to court because abuse of the Blue Badge is a major issue."

So, it seems the prosecution was quite in order.



"Also in court, former town hall kitchen worker Daniel Partington, 20, of Croft Street, Salford, was caught using his dead grandfather's Blue Badge.
(..)
Unemployed Partington was ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work and told to pay £260 costs."

**150 hours** "unpaid work??? That's staggering!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 11:24
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - Armitage Shanks {p}
It would be staggering if he was actually made to do it! My impression is that community service and the like ar poorly supervised (lack of manpower and funds) and is rarely completed.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 11:42
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - FotheringtonThomas
I don't care whether he actually does the work or not, but I certainly *do* care about the sentence - or, rather, the comparison between this edict, and, for instance:

tinyurl.com/3j8xcv


(from the "Liverpool Echo")

Well, I do care whether he does the work actually, but that's not my main point!

Edited by FotheringtonThomas on 26/09/2008 at 11:43

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 11:53
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - movilogo
Judges should be presented with a user manual for instructions of how to operate their brains .

}:-|

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 14:23
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - Armitage Shanks {p}
I despair at the state of affairs with regard to the sentence handed out for a Blue Badge offence and that given to a dangerous hit and run + Bail jumping loon. I aware that I may not have the full facts and my opinion is based on what has been reported.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 12:08
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - moonshine {P}
"chairman of the bench John Bulger told her: "First and foremost we have to say
it was right and proper for the case to be brought to court because abuse
of the Blue Badge is a major issue."
So it seems the prosecution was quite in order.



Just becuase the chairman said it was right doesn't mean that it was in order. I agree that technically she was breaking the rules and open to prosecution. I also agree that anyone abusing blue badges should be taken to court and agree that these cases should get a lot of press attention.

I just think in this case as she was so obviously entitled to a blue badge that common sense would have prefvailed and resources directed towards catching more derseving offenders.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 13:54
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - Altea Ego
She broke the rules. The system did what its supposed to do and proccessed the case based ont he facts at the time of the offence, and the juducuary did what its there for and
rulled on the legality of the offence, and passed sentence based on all the available information from all parties.

Seems to me that everyone did thier job and arrived at a correct conclusion(s) that day. Those who abused the privelage got punished and those that didnt - well didnt.



Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 14:59
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - jbif
:-)
She was lucky the court was a British one, and did not consist of the FIA judges who recently heard Lewis Hamilton's appeal! ;-)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 14:57
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - skorpio
It's the worst case of female facial hair I've ever seen!

That alone warrants prosecution in my opinion.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 15:50
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - FotheringtonThomas
It's the worst case of (..)


That's not very kind - she probably has something wrong with her, & can't help it.

Shouldn't really be driving anyway, bein' legless, and all...
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 16:18
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - Lud
It's actually quite a funny case, with a happy ending. This lady, who is missing a foot, took a short cut on a technical level and committed a purely technical offence. She was fully entitled to a blue badge but had neglected to apply for one as her daughters had one already. When booked she 'did not appear to be disabled', presumably because wearing a prosthetic foot.

Clearly she is a person struggling with great vigour to master a situation that on paper looks far from easy, and that seems to have been the court's view.

I disapprove of rude comments on a lady's appearance, unless the lady in question is an international beauty in which case she can look after herself.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 16:35
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - Armitage Shanks {p}
Thanks Lud - that's a nice balanced and fair comment on the position. I travel a lot by public transport and the authorities provide help; I was quite troubled the other day to see two blind people at the railway station, with luggage, trying to get from A to B. Station staff were on hand to help but setting out on a trip like that takes more nerve than I have got!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 26 Sep 2008 16:42
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - Lud
.
I disapprove of rude comments on a lady's appearance


... but cannot in all honesty claim that I never make them. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak....
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 9 Aug 2011 23:58
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - one-leg amanda

I am not even classed disabled as i struggle with one leg and wear my artificial leg occassionally

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 9 Aug 2011 23:53
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - one-leg amanda

That is me you are talking about and i haven't got a moustache you try hopping on one leg with crutches it is not the easiest thing!!!!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 10 Aug 2011 00:27
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - Avant

Welcome to the forum Amanda. Fortunately the people who were rude 3 years ago (through looking at a poor photo) aren't on the forum any more. I hope all goes well for you and that you have your own blue badge now!

Any more unchivalrous comments will be edited I assure you!

Best wishes

Avant (moderator)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 10 Aug 2011 00:49
One legged driver cheats blue badge system - jamie745

My mother has a blue badge and i remember all the many problems she had getting it in the first place as even if you apply for one on the grounds of having no head and no legs the default answer is always 'no' but eventually she was able to get one but it was a major hassle.

On the subject of discretion, isnt it shocking that Police have no choice but to apply full force of the law on minor motoring offences, yet cant do anything about hoodies burning down furniture stores? What a sad state of affairs in our society. If you commit a speeding offence and a rape in this country you're statistically four times more likely to get away with the latter than the former. Work that one out.

Hi Amanda, welcome to the forum. I am highly sympathetic to the needs of the disabled but also understand most disabled people dont like to have others speaking on their behalf somewhat but any council who restricts disabled parking soon gets a postbag full of complaints from me (see my comments on pathetic shared space schemes in the main forum).

Welcome to HJ

Jamie

Reply | Report as offensive | Link