Drivers have had illegal blue disability badges confiscated as part of a council crackdown on parking fraud.

Officers from Brent Council’s anti-fraud and parking teams were accompanied by the police during spot-checks in Kingsbury, which resulted in two badges being confiscated.

A further two were confiscated in Wembley and five fines were issued to drivers for illegally parking in a disabled person’s bay.

The badges were confiscated by the officers as they were being fraudulently used by individuals who the badges were registered to, and all were being used by able bodied people taking advantage of disabled persons' parking concessions.

Cllr Eleanor Southwood, who is responsible for parking, said: “We are committed to making Brent an open and accessible borough for everyone and the blue badge scheme is an essential part of how we will deliver that.

“This is why abuse of the scheme is so wrong, as for every time a blue badge is used by someone who it does not belong to, that parking space is taken away from a disabled person who genuinely needs it.

“I hope that this operation and our wider crackdown on this type of fraud sends out a clear message that abuse of the blue badge scheme will simply not be tolerated here in Brent.”

Last month, ten motorists had blue badges confiscated for fraudulent use, and Brent Council is planning further crackdowns in the future to prevent this type of parking fraud.