Lying Havant couple caught red-handed using son’s Blue Badge while they went shopping
A lying couple from Havant were caught red-handed illegally using their disabled son’s Blue Badge while they went shopping in Portsmouth city centre.
Rachel and Richard Moore, of Iping Avenue, were hauled before Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court where they were told to cough up over £1,000 between them for parking in a disabled bay in Landport View on March 4.
The court heard how suspicions were aroused when a Portsmouth City Council enforcement officer spotted the badge belonging to the couple’s eight-year-old child being displayed in a Ford car despite it being a normal school day.
The officer approached the vehicle and asked for the badge to be presented - before being repeatedly thwarted in his attempts. “Short fused” Richard Moore, 35, waved away the official, telling him, “you're not entitled to look at it", before adding: “Move out the way...we're going.”
The officer then approached driver Rachel Moore, 35, who lied to the officer, telling him: “I've shown you the badge, it’s my son’s”.
“(The officer) advises that she is required to 'hand the badge to me'. She completely ignores the officer, and then hands the badge to the passenger who puts it away in the glovebox,” the officer’s statement, read out to court, said.
Richard Moore, a water technician with Thames Water, then shouts aggressively at the officer, telling him: “You're not having the ******* badge.”
When asked where the badge holder is, the Moore couple both shout at the officer “he's in the back” before accelerating off. However, checks revealed the badge holder was in school all day in Waterlooville.
Rachel Moore subsequently attended the council’s civic offices where she was interviewed about the incident. She told the officer she was in Portsmouth to go shopping with her husband but “couldn’t recall” whether she was with her own children.
The woman went on to admit her husband "has a short fuse" before claiming she rejected the officer’s request to pass over the badge because he didn’t show her any identification. The defendant added that she showed him the front and back of the badge, though.
During the interrogation, the mum finally caved in when her son’s school attendance record was put before her. “(Rachel) Moore capitulated and admitted she was not using the badge to support (her son) that day,” the officer’s statement said.
“When questioned as to why she used it she replied: ‘Force of habit… I don’t know’.”
When probed further as to why she drove past multiple car park entrances prior to parking in the disabled bay she then turned on her partner, saying: "My husband told me to drive down there.” She went on to admit her mistake and claimed she was in a “panic”.
In an email, Richard Moore claimed he was unaware he needed to show the officer the disabled badge despite being asked several times and told it was a criminal offence not to do so.
He claimed the uniformed officer did not show any identification and only pointed to his shoulder. “He did admit the behaviour and language he used towards the officer was not appropriate and ‘for this I can only apologise’,” the officer’s statement said.
At court, Rachel Moore admitted misusing her son’s Blue Badge and refusing to hand the badge to an officer, resulting in her being hit with a total fine of £678.
Her husband admitted a charge of refusing to hand the badge to an officer and was fined £470.
Cabinet member for transport, councillor Peter Candlish, said: "The council takes a zero-tolerance approach to the misuse of Blue Badges, anyone found to be flouting the rules will be prosecuted and fined. Those who abuse the scheme are showing seriously anti-social behaviour by taking up parking spaces designated for people with genuine disabilities and health conditions."