A STUDENT nurse has been prosecuted by Reading Borough Council and will carry out 100 hours of unpaid work for Blue Badge fraud.
Nuru Hassan, 26, of Grovelands Avenue, Wokingham, was caught using a disabled parking badge to park in Reading in two separate incidents back in March.
The badge was reported as lost in 2021 by the mother of a severely disabled man after it failed to arrive at his residential care home in Buckinghamshire.
Miss Hassan, in her third year of a nursing course, was charged with two counts of fraud by false representation under Section 2 of the Fraud Act, as well as a count of being in possession of an article for use in connection with fraud, under section 6 of the same act.
She pleaded guilty to all three counts at Reading Magistrates Court on Friday, September 29, and subsequently ordered to pay prosecution costs of £3,532.23 as well as a victim surcharge of £114.
She was also subject to a community order for 18 months, and sentenced to complete 15 days of rehabilitation activity and 100 hours of unpaid work.
John Ennis, Reading Borough Council’s Lead Councillor for Climate Strategy and Transport, said:
“The disabled persons parking scheme is an essential and valuable scheme for those who make use of it, allowing them to park closer to their homes or destinations. Misuse of the blue badges in this way undermines the system and takes parking spaces away from those who genuinely need them.
“The Council takes all suspected fraud and misuse of Blue Badges extremely seriously and will investigate all reports made, working alongside the police, parking enforcement officers and other councils.”
