Dozens investigated and penalised for blue badge fraud in Doncaster

Documents reveal that during October 2018 and September 2019, the council successfully prosecuted 16 people who ended up paying fines of over £8,000 between them.

A further 22 people received written warnings, two got cautions and another 26 are still under investigation.

Latest figures also show Civic Office bosses cancelled 521 blue badges from people who had died to prevent others using them fraudulently.

Nicola Frost-Wilson, internal audit manager at DMBC, said: “Blue badge fraud occurs where individuals misuse use a blue badge issued to someone with reduced mobility.

“This can include the use of badges by family or friends where the disabled person is not present or the use of badges where the individual the badge was issued to is now deceased.

“Blue badge fraud reduces the council’s parking revenue and takes up valuable spaces for less mobile and/or elderly persons.

“Operations are currently planned for the remainder of this year to detect further cases and act as a deterrent to other badge holders/badge users.”

Papers seen by councillors outlying wider work on council-related fraud shows bosses cancelled 1,054 council tax single persons discount which saved over £250,000.

Bosses undertake a review every 12 months to identify if more than one person lives in a property.

The SPD affects around 30,000 households in Doncaster, the majority are Band A properties.

Other stats include 95 instances where double invoices were detected before payment was made which equated to a potential loss of over £1.5 million.

DMBC staff also managed to recover £29,000 in overpayments to a variety of customers and £144,000 from 588 people for underpayment of housing benefit.