Drivers who abuse the blue badge parking scheme were last night warned they will be hauled through the courts after a woman was fined for using her dead mother’s permit to park in a disabled space in Bradford city centre.

Nassra Gondal, 51, of St Leonards Road, Girlington, admitted to the misuse of a blue badge after her Fiat Punto was spotted by a Civil Enforcement Officer parked in a disabled space in Kirkgate, Bradford, in August.

Bradford magistrates were told yesterday that the badge had been issued to her mother Rasula Gondal, who died on February 25, 2009.

Gondal did not appear in Court but admitted the offence in a letter sent to the court.

Dennis Schulman, prosecuting on behalf of Bradford Council, told magistrates the officer checked on the blue badge with his office and was told it belonged to Rasula Gondal, who had died.

Mr Schulman said that in an interview Gondal admitted displaying the blue badge and that her mother had died.

He said: “She said ‘I have no excuse, there’s no point in making an excuse – there isn’t one’.”

Magistrates’ chairman Neil Walker said: “Taking into account the guilty plea we have received we have reduced the fine we were going to impose.”

Gondal was fined £100, with £145 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

After the hearing, Council leader Councillor Ian Greenwood said: “The blue badge system is designed for people who have a disability, so their lives are assisted so they can park in places other people can’t.

“It is a clear abuse of the system if people use those badges when they are not entitled to and everyone needs to understand the Council takes such abuse seriously and will prosecute where people do abuse the system.”

In a separate case, Eva Underwood, 35, of Averingcliffe Road, Thorpe Edge, was fined £250 and ordered to pay costs of £755.29 and a £15 victim surcharge after being found guilty in her absence of misuse of a blue badge in June this year after she had been seen using her father’s blue badge to park in the Bradford Crown Court car park without him being present.

Martin Stubbs, assistant director, revenues and benefits, said: “The two successful court cases today, together with six earlier prosecutions since April this year, demonstrate that we take this issue seriously and we are determined to stamp out the misuse of blue badges.

“We are currently running an amnesty until December 9 in which people can hand over a blue badge that does not belong to them.

“Anyone who has any information on the misuse of a blue badge can ring the Council’s counter-fraud hotline, in confidence, on 0800 1697451.”