Licensed Portsmouth council taxi driver uses dead dad as cover – to avoid paying £10 to register parking in the city

Fraudster Simon Curtis, 56, took advantage of his dad’s death in 2020 by using the deceased’s Blue Badge to park his Skoda Octavia without a permit in a residential parking zone RPZ near to his St Georges Square home in the city, Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court heard.

The serial parking offender, who said he retired from being a taxi driver after becoming depressed from the death of his parents, was anonymously flagged on separate occasions in April and May 2021 to Portsmouth City Council’s enforcement officers for using a deceased person’s Blue Badge. But checks showed the badge holder was still alive.

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However, Curtis’ Skoda became a firm focus of officers’ attention in May and June with the suspicious vehicle spotted in the same residential location on 17 occasions. Then, officers were handed a breakthrough in the case as West Sussex County Council rang on June 30 to say the badge holder, David Curtis, had died in October 2020 – putting Curtis junior firmly in the frame for dishonesty.

The officers’ perseverance in their hunt to catch the elusive Curtis was then finally rewarded as his Skoda was seen parking in the Three Tun Close parking bay – with the illegal badge on display. Efforts to track down Curtis were made before he turned up at the car and admitted his crimes.

After being placed under caution, Curtis said he used the badge because he could not afford to pay £10 to change the registration on his parking permit. 'I've actually got a permit but they're different cars and they charge £10 whenever you change them,’ he told an officer. He also said he ‘never got round’ to cancelling his dad’s badge.

When asked if he had used his dead dad’s disabled badge previously, Curtis was not wholly forthcoming with the truth. He said: 'A couple of times.’ It was then pointed out to him the car had been spotted 17 times with the badge.

Investigating officer Stephen Goodall said: ‘The defendant repeatedly said he was only using the badge as he kept changing vehicles and didn't want to pay the £10 fee to change the permit. However, he then admitted that he has been using this vehicle for quite a long period of time.’

The court heard of Curtis’ ‘lengthy history’ with the council’s parking enforcement branch. The cab driver had been issued with 17 penalty charge notices across four different vehicles of which only seven had been paid, with the remainder sent to bailiff and eventually written off by the authority with no payment received.

Curtis pleaded guilty to three dishonesty charges and had 16 offences taken into consideration. Magistrates told him to pay £504 – including £350 for costs and just under £150 in fines along with a £34 surcharge.

Councillor Lynne Stagg said: ‘I am always disappointed to see that people are willing to use deceased relatives disabled badges to avoid paying for parking, and am very glad we are tackling this problem. Hopefully today's successful prosecutions will show that we will not put up with this sort of crime in Portsmouth and this kind of fraud is not worth the risk.’