Fraud specialist described it as a “moment of aberration”
A criminal barrister has been slapped with a £60 fine and £325 costs after using his dead mother’s disabled blue badge to park outside court.
Prithvijit Notu Singh Hoon, a barrister at London’s Goldsmith Chambers, decided to display the disabled parking permit on his vehicle when he was running late for a case at Croydon Crown Court back in April.
The badge — which allowed the fraud specialist to park on a main road adjacent to the court building — was registered to Hoon’s mother Roma, who died last year.
Unfortunately for Hoon (pictured below) — who was called to the bar in 1975 — an eagle-eyed parking warden noticed that the disabled badge had expired and reported him.
According to local news website the Croydon Advertiser, Hoon plead guilty but did not attend the hearing at Croydon Magistrates Court last week.
The experienced barrister opted instead to address the court in a letter. Hoon explained how he had been unable to find a parking space nearby and was running late for a matter at Croydon Crown Court. Opting to use his mother’s disability badge to park illegally, he expressed his remorse, saying:
I’m deeply ashamed of what I’ve done; it was a moment of aberration
Hoon explained how he thought that his court appearance that day would only be very brief, but regrettably it ended up taking all day.
Returning to his car at around 5pm, the criminal barrister discovered his vehicle had been removed by Croydon Council.
A BSB spokesperson told Legal Cheek:
The BSB does not usually comment on individual cases in order to balance being open and transparent along with its duty to safeguard information and confidentiality.
A spokeswoman for Goldsmith Chambers told Legal Cheek that Hoon was in court and not available for comment.