A driver who got 13 parking fines in a month has been banned from driving for eight months after faking RAC breakdown reports to appeal them.
Ahmed Yussuf was issued with the parking charge notices by Wandsworth Council, it revealed this week. He told the council his car had broken down and sent in documents presented as RAC breakdown reports to back up his appeals.
The council checked the documents and passed the case to the South West London Fraud Partnership, a 15-strong team that Wandsworth shares with four other councils. The Partnership investigated, and Yussuf then admitted that he had downloaded them from the internet and altered each report to suit each of the 13 notices.
The problem was that not only was trying to get out of paying parking fines but he had forged documents to do so. He pleaded guilty at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court in July and was convicted on 13 charges under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981. Unlucky for some.
The court banned him from driving for eight months on each charge but then ran them concurrently so he’ll be back parking on the streets in the middle of next year.
As they say, it wasn’t the offence but the cover-up: the bans were imposed on the forgery charges, not for the parking notices, and courts can ban a person from driving for any offence, not only driving ones.
Yussuf was also ordered to pay £2,492, the council’s full costs of prosecuting him.
The announcement does not say where in the borough the notices were issued, or when, or whether he paid them.
Spotlight on fraud
It is the second fraud case the council has announced in five days. On 24 September it said a former tenant had been ordered to pay £64,743.54 over an illegal sublet.
Both announcements come as the council proposes to nearly double council tax from April 2027 and to add a second yearly rent rise for about 10,000 council tenants.
Drivers who think a parking ticket was issued wrongly can challenge it with the council. For a ticket issued on the street, an informal challenge must reach the council in writing within 14 days. The council says drivers who want to appeal should not pay first, because payment closes the case as an acceptance of liability.
Formal representations can be made within 28 days of a Notice to Owner, the letter sent to the vehicle’s registered keeper.
Suspected fraud against the council can be reported to the Fraud Partnership at swlfp@wandsworth.gov.uk.
Councillor Peter Graham, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for finance, said of the parking case: “Trying to cheat our system with an internet trick means a driving ban and a bill for thousands.”
