Southall Man Had Fake Blue Badge with Cressida Dick's Photo

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Navdeep Chahal said he was fed up of looking for parking spaces

Navdeep Chahal had a disabled badge parking permit bearing Cressida Dick's face

A man from Southall who tried to trick parking wardens with a fake disabled badge showing Met Police boss Cressida Dick’s face has been fined £851.

Navdeep Chahal, 28, displayed the disabled blue badge in the window of his black Mercedes C-class outside his home on Townsend Road three times between July and September last year.

A council officer returned with police officers on the third occasion after seeing it displayed and suspecting it to be a mass-produced fake.

The back of the fake badge bore the name ‘Jacqui Smith’ with a photograph of Cressida Dick, the current Met Police Commissioner.

An example of the fake badge featuring Dame Cressida. Picture: Paul Slowey BBFI CIC

Hatoon Zeb, prosecuting, said: “‘Officers checked the photo on the blue badge and found that the badge was issued by Ealing Council.

“A series of mass produced badges that had been circulating in the area of London and the whole country, being a fake badge, it wasn’t valid for use.”

Chahal immediately admitted he knew the badge was fake and claimed the previous car owner gave it to him for free.

He added, “I only used it three or four times. My dad’s disabled so I don’t want to take the p***.”

Chahal admitted three counts of possessing a device with intent to deceive at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on 20 July and was fined £815.

Representing himself, he said, “I just want to apologise and to say that I’m sorry, and to say that it was a really silly mistake.

“This is the first time I’ve done something like this, and will be the last. I want to say that I’m sorry.

“I was working at night at the time and the area that I live in is so congested, there are so many people living there, each house has three or four cars.

“I was fed up of driving around looking for parking spaces. I would have to park about five streets away.”

He has now paid £95 for a parking permit, the court heard.

Chahal, of Townsend Road, Southall, admitted three counts of possessing a device with intent to deceive.

He was fined £300, ordered to pay £481 costs and £34 victim surcharge.

Josh Mellor - Local Democracy Reporter

 

July 21, 2021