Crackdown on Blue Badge misuse in York

As part of a National Day of Action teams from the council and Veritau have carried out a crack-down on badge misuse.

The crack-down on badge misuse and fraud took place on Friday 24 May as part of the National Blue Badge Day of Action.

Parking enforcement officers and fraud investigators at City of York Council worked together to ensure that only legitimate Blue Badges were being used correctly. This means it must be displayed in a parked vehicle used by the badge owner, or by a driver parking to pick up or drop off the badge owner.

Badges are identified by the council’s enforcement officers, with Veritau’s fraud officers contacting the badge owner, to ensure that it’s use is appropriate.

Over the course of the day, 73 Blue badges were checked with one ticket issued for a parking contravention.

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Money launderers jailed for £1 million fraud after York-based investigation

Five money launderers who laundered over £1m proceeds of bogus computer service companies have been sentenced to 9 and a half years imprisonment at Leeds Crown Court.

They laundered money which companies had conned from victims, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable. The sentences were handed out yesterday (3 June 2024).

The sentences follow an investigation led by the National Trading Standards eCrime Team, based at City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council, supported by officers from West Midlands, Staffordshire and Wiltshire police services.

Between May 2015 and November 2019, Amanda Grigg (66) of Truro, Cornwall, Jose Kuriakose (50) of Deal, Kent, Gena Harrington (39) of Handsworth, Birmingham, Bindu Devasia (49) of Deal, Kent, and Nicholas Alcide (40) of Birmingham, transferred over £1,289,837 to two India-based brothers behind a network of companies* posing as well-known firms (including HP, Microsoft Norton, and Epson) to defraud consumers.

The fake companies posted adverts online to lure victims before leading them to believe there were issues with their computers, when in fact there were not. Victims were told that false problems could be fixed for a fee and were persuaded into allowing remote access to their computers.

The group laundered the money via a series of UK-based firms which only existed to receive payments from consumers, before forwarding it on to the fraudsters in India. They set themselves up as company directors and, in return, kept a percentage of the money for themselves.

One victim paid a total of £4,427.96 to people who he believed worked for HP to resolve a supposed issue with his computer. Someone calling himself Henry, posing as an HP representative, informed him that his computer had been hacked and demanded an immediate payment of £803.98 to fix it. The victim agreed to send a cheque the next day. Despite not noticing any other issues the victim received numerous calls informing him there were further issues with his computer and he was persuaded to make additional payments. The cycle of calls persisted for several months until he grew suspicious and made a report to Trading Standards.

The sentences handed down were as follows:

• Amanda Grigg – 3 years imprisonment, disqualified from being a company director for 6 years.
• Jose Kuriakose – 50 months’ imprisonment, disqualified from being a company director for 6 years.
• Gena Harrington – 30 months’ imprisonment, disqualified from being a company director for 6 years.
• Bindu Devasia – 8 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 2 years. Disqualified from being a company director for 6 years and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
• Nicholas Alcide – 15 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 2 years. Disqualified from being a company director for 2 years and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.

Amanda Grigg, Gena Harrington, Bindu Devasia, Nicholas Alcide and Jose Kuriakose were found guilty of entering into a money laundering arrangement contrary to the to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

A further defendant will be sentenced later, following a Newton Hearing, and another faces trial separately in 2025.

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Facebook fraudster jailed

A Facebook Marketplace user who defrauded people looking to refurnish their homes during the lockdowns has been sentenced for money laundering and fraud at at York Crown Court today (11 April 2024).

Ryan Rhys Burns, aged 32 of 26 St Mary’s Road, Rotherham, conned customers out of £14,544 for furnishings, which were either non-existent or not supplied, or completely unfit for purpose.

More than 100 complaints were made by consumers between August 2020 and July 2022 about two online businesses – Bespoke Furnishings and Rustic Furnishings – which Burns ran to carry out a widespread fraud.

Both companies operated via Facebook Marketplace and displayed photographs of the furniture that they claimed to make. The pages often appeared as advertisements on victims’ Facebook ‘Feed’ after they had been searching for furniture online.

The court heard how – in the majority of cases – the furniture ordered never arrived, and if it did, it was in poor condition and not fit for use or not as described. Some customers were blocked on Facebook Messenger after payment had been made, to deter any further contact.

Burns used a network of ten separate bank accounts under his and his partner’s names to launder money. He spent the stolen money on holidays, restaurants, take-aways and other luxury items. He also used fake addresses in the latter part of the fraud.

Victims were met with lies and hostility from either Burns or his partner, who frequently acted on his behalf, when they enquired about a refund. One victim described how he “tried to be patient and polite to start with, but then realised I was just the victim of a scammer who was repeatedly lying to me”. Another said, “I feel as if I have been scammed and wonder how somebody could do this to someone else”. On limited occasions, refunds were given but this appeared to be done reluctantly and only after victims exerted a significant amount of effort to get their money back.

Burns was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment under the Fraud Act 2006 and Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and will serve half.

The investigation was conducted by the National Trading Standards Regional Investigations Team (Yorkshire and Humber), hosted at City of York Council, and was supported by Rotherham Trading Standards.

Lord Michael Bichard, Chair of National Trading Standards, said:

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York investigators help secure verdict for ticket touts guilty of online fraud

The final pair of a family of ‘ticket touts’ have been found guilty at Leeds Crown Court of fraudulently and dishonestly buying and reselling tickets for events such as Ed Sheeran and Lady Gaga.

The touts resold tickets – often at vastly inflated prices – for high profile music events such as Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga and Little Mix concerts. The hearing on Tuesday 13 March is the latest in a series of prosecutions against secondary ticketing touts that has been led by investigators at the National Trading Standards eCrime Team based at City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council. This enforcement has already led to landmark prosecutions, jail terms and millions of pounds in proceeds of crime returned to the exchequer. 

This week, Leeds crown court heard that husband and wife, Mark Woods (aged 60) and Maria Chenery-Woods (aged 54), along with Maria’s sister Lynda Chenery (aged 51) and Lynda’s former husband Paul Douglas (aged 56), ran TQ Tickets, a multi-million-pound limited company they used to purchase and resell hundreds of tickets at hugely inflated prices for events and concerts such as Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, Gary Barlow, Liam Gallagher, Strictly Come Dancing, Paul Weller and Little Mix.

An investigation by National Trading Standards found that the defendants used several dishonest and fraudulent tactics to purchase multiple tickets from primary ticket sellers such as Ticketmaster, Eventim, SEE Tickets and AXS, circumventing the platforms’ automated systems to block multiple purchases. These techniques – which were designed to exploit fans’ support and passion to line their own pockets – included:

• using multiple identities and names to buy tickets, including false identities
• using different names, postal addresses; email addresses and IP addresses
• concealing their IP address – their internet identity – by using the Insomniac Browser, a specialist software that was designed for use by ticket touts by enabling multiple online identities and proxy IP addresses to purchase tickets at the same time.

Having fraudulently purchased the tickets, the defendants used false identities to resell the tickets at vastly inflated prices – in some cases at 500% more than the face value – on secondary ticketing websites such as Viagogo, Seatwave, Stubhub and Getmein.

The defendants also engaged in fraudulent trading by listing tickets for sale on secondary ticketing websites that they had not purchased and did not own. Known as ‘spec selling’, the idea was to induce consumers to agree to ‘buy’ non-existent tickets – with false information about the seats and row numbers – at an inflated price. Where ticket purchases could not be met, the defendants tried to make it appear that tickets had been sent by giving fake postal trackers and sending empty or torn envelopes.

Ed Sheeran’s manager is Stuart Camp, director of Grumpy Old Management Ltd. Mr Camp said:

“Ed Sheeran’s 2018 summer stadium tour was when we really took a stand against online ticket touts. The low point for me had been one of his earlier Teenage Cancer Trust concerts, where tickets were listed on Viagogo for thousands of pounds, but with none of the money going to charity.

“We want to keep ticket prices accessible for as many people as possible and hope to get everyone a good seat at a fair price. Today’s prosecution will help protect music fans and sets an important precedent in the live entertainment industry that I hope will be celebrated by live music fans.”

The investigation was led by the National Trading Standards eCrime Team, which has prepared a checklist for consumers looking to buy tickets online.

BUYING TICKETS ONLINE – YOUR CHECKLIST

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£156,000 has already been recovered as a result of recent counter fraud activity at the York Council

59% of investigations of fraud. against the York Council during the present financial year have been successful

This is the proportion of investigations completed which result in a successful outcome (for example payments stopped or amended, sanctions, prosecutions, properties recovered, housing allocations blocked)

In total 285 reports of possible fraud have been received by auditors this year.

The largest number of incidents (32%) involved Council Tax Support Fraud. Twenty council tax support investigations were completed with twenty-two more cases under investigation. Fraud in this area can occur when claimants provide false information when they apply, or fail to declare changes to their circumstances, relating to income or capital. Seven claimants have received formal warnings in 2023/24. Work in this area has resulted in £27k of savings for the council.

Parking fraud accounted for 14% of cases investigated. Parking fraud usually relates to blue badge abuse however, there have been a rising number of investigations of misuse of residential parking permits by owners of holiday lets. Thirty-two investigations have been completed – twenty relating to blue badges and twelve to parking permits. Three people have been successfully prosecuted and nine others have received formal warnings for the misuse of blue badges. Eleven holiday let owners have had their residential permits removed, six of whom were also issued with formal warnings.

Other categories of fraud included

• Adult Social Care fraud – The team has completed three investigations in this area and five are ongoing. Fraud in this area relates to deprivation of capital, financial abuse, direct payment fraud, and abuse of position. Investigative work has assisted the council to recover £85k to date.
• Housing fraud – There are fourteen investigations ongoing in this area. The majority of cases relate to sub-letting and abandonment of council properties, but the team also investigates false applications to the Housing Register, for Right to Buy purchases, and for Homelessness. Fifteen investigations have been completed to date. 
• Internal fraud investigations – Four internal fraud investigations have been completed. There are five ongoing.
• External (or third party) fraud – Fraud in this area relates to financial scams perpetrated against the council, eg mandate fraud or cybercrime. Four investigations have been completed and one is ongoing.
• Council Tax and business rates fraud – Council Tax fraud often involves households falsely claiming single person discount, however other types of discounts can also be abused. Business rate fraud relates to false or incorrect claims for discounts like small business rate relief. Fourteen investigations have been completed this year and ten are ongoing.

Courts deal with drivers misusing Blue Badges in York

Fines of over £1000 levied

As part of ongoing work to protect legitimate Blue Badge users, investigators in York have successful uncovered and prosecuted two instances of Blue Badge fraud.

Working with the Council’s fraud investigation service, Veritau, two cases of fraud have now been successfully convicted, helping protect the rights of Blue Badge holders across the city and ensure that Blue Badge holder parking facilities are available for those who actually need them.

The number of cases where Blue Badges fraud occurs are rare, but these cases were identified as part of the regular investigative work that takes place in the city. Blue Badges must only be displayed in parked vehicles where the badge owner is present, or when the driver is specifically parking to pick up or drop off the badge holder.

Steven McHale of Kingsgate, Bridlington (aged 39), was found to be misusing a Blue Badge that did not belong to him. The investigation determined that the badge holder was not with Mr McHale when he travelled to York, or in the city when his vehicle was parked in a disabled parking bay in Castle Car Park by Clifford’s Tower in March 2023.

Mr McHale was invited to attend an interview under caution about his use of the Blue Badge but failed to attend on three separate occasions.

During the court case, on 10 November, Mr McHale pleaded guilty and apologised for the offence, and for lying when had been confronted by Council officers on the day the Blue Badge was misused. York Magistrates Court ordered him to pay a £115 fine, £46 surcharge and £668 court costs.

Danel Balan, a takeaway delivery driver of Sandhurst Grove, Leeds (aged 29), was found using a photocopy of a Blue Badge which did not belong to him in York city centre in May 2023.

A Council Civil Enforcement Officer noted that the Blue Badge, used by Mr Balan to park on double yellow lines on Duncombe Place, appeared to be a paper photocopy.

Mr Balan was invited to attend an interview under caution about his misuse of the Blue Badge but failed to attend on three separate occasions.

During the court hearing on 8 December 2023, which Mr Balan did not attend, he was found guilty by York Magistrates Court which ordered him to pay a total of £1,657.

Since 2018, to protect people who need and legitimately use a Blue badge, City of York Council has successfully prosecuted 11 people for misusing a Blue Badge, 33 people have been cautioned, and 90 people have received written warnings.

From 4 January 2024, any Blue Badge holders driving into the city centre via Goodramgate, between 10:30am and 5pm, will have their Blue Badge checked as a condition of entry by staff at sliding barriers.

York Council internal audit report

The York Council has revealed how many investigations into fraudulent activity have taken place.

Around £150,000 has been recovered.

The areas of concern are highlighted below

York Council reports £273,000 faud prevention success in 2022/23.

The latest report into fraud prevention work at the York Council has been published. Auditors report that they succeeded in preventing over £1/4 million in fraudulent claims last year

Most of the bogus claims related to housing, Council Tax and social care payments

click to view detailed figures

The report to a meeting taking place next week says

“We received over 319 referrals of suspected fraud during the year including reports from the public, council staff, external agencies, and issues identified through proactive exercises. Over 145 investigations were completed in 2022/23 with successful outcomes2 achieved in 50% of cases.

We also conducted verification exercises in respect of 54 applications for Right to Buy and school placements”.

Nationally it is estimated that between £33.2 and £58.8 billion of public spending was lost to fraud in 2020/21

The number of whistleblowing reports has gradually reduced in recnet years

£45.6 million bill for benefit payments in York

Much of the bill was picked up by central government with Housing benefit (£24 million), Energy rebates (£11 million) and Council Tax support (£7 million) accounting for most of the expenditure..

The figures are included in a report being considered by the York Council next week.

The report doesn’t address the issue of fraudulent claims

Central government provides around £ 2 million a year for what is termed a Household Support Fund (HSF). The HSF was introduced to support households in the most need with food, energy, and water bills. It could also be used to support households with wider essential costs where appropriate

Nearly 10,000 York househods have benefited from this government funded scheme.

York Council taxpayers fund what is known as the York Financial Assistance scheme. Last year the scheme paid out £343,999 to 649 claimants. Most of the beneficiaries were single people & single parent families. They received an average of around £500.

In addition almost 4000 food and fuel vouchers were issued during 22/23.

£91,000 was paid in Fuel and Food vouchers with part of this being allocated by the Councils Local Area Coordinators, who also have access to what is known as an Early Support Fund. £17,593 was allocated from this fund last year and is intended to support residents who face additional barriers, such as long term health needs and issues with private rented accommodation.

The numbers claiming Universal Credit in the City are also creeping up

Rent arrears

Arrears at March 2022 were £1,377,634.71 and increased further throughout the following year.

From April 2022 to March 2023 rent arrears increased to £1,835,051.76, an overall increase of 33.2%.

Currently rent arrears stand at £1,754,821

All in all, there is still alot of work for the Council to do if it is to be satified that the benefits systems are fair and that payments are being made promptly to all who need them.

Some parts of the safety net – such as the Early Support Fund – are not widely known and require better publicity.

The Council will also have to be cadid about its efforts to eliminate fraudulent clams. Money saved here can be used to provide improved support for those genuinely in need.

York fraud against Blue Badges tackled

Action taken against three fraudsters

Council parking officers and fraud investigators from Veritau – the organisation that investigates fraud on behalf of the council – worked together to check the use of Blue Badges across the city.

On the day of action on 2 June, 84 badges were checked across the city. Two Penalty Charge Notices were issued and a badge was confiscated because the Blue Badges were being used by people who weren’t badge holders or who weren’t supporting the badge holder.

The Blue Badge scheme is designed to help disabled people park closer to their destination. Their badge must be visible in the front windscreen of their car when parked in a designated space or on double yellow lines where appropriate. A Blue Badge must only be used when the owner is present, or the driver is parking specifically to pick them up or drop them off.

Although almost all Blue Badges are used correctly, there is a small minority who fraudulently use other people’s badges, either to save money by parking in disabled bays or who just want to park closer to their destination. It’s an offence to misuse a Blue Badge, with offenders facing possible prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000.

Pauline Stuchfield, Director of Customer and Communities at City of York Council, said:

Over 7,200 Blue Badges are held in York and we know that fraudulent use of them is a concern for the disabled community. However, as not all disabilities are visible and to avoid causing any unnecessary stress for a genuine Blue Badge owner, please report any suspected misuse of a Blue Badge to Veritau rather than challenge an individual directly.”

Neil Ferris, Director of Place at City of York Council, said:

We take concerns about all forms of fraud very seriously. The misuse of Blue Badges has the added consequence of depriving disabled people of facilities specifically provided to meet their needs. The day of action aims to support disabled people’s continued access to services, employment and activities.”

Last month (May 2023), Magistrates fined a visitor to the city who misused a Blue Badge and so wrongly took a designated parking space.

York Magistrates ordered Thomas Prior, 68, of Waterside Road, Barton-upon-Humber, to pay a fine for misusing a deceased family member’s Blue Badge in August last year. An investigation into the misuse was conducted by Veritau following a report from a civil enforcement officer. The officer had noted that the expiry date on a displayed Blue Badge had been altered to give the impression that it was still valid.

On 12 May 2023, Mr Prior submitted a postal guilty plea to the Court for the wrongful misuse of the Blue Badge. He was ordered to pay £1,652.67 which included a fine of £600, costs of £812.67 and a court surcharge of £240.

Anyone with information about Blue Badge fraud or fraudulent activity against the council is encouraged to call Veritau’s hotline on 0800 9179 247, or email fraud@york.gov.uk. The call can be anonymous, and all concerns are treated seriously.