A SOLICITOR has been fined after using his grandma's Blue Badge to park his sports car for free in Manchester.

Shaob Panwar, 35, of Hartwell Close, Beswick, pleaded guilty to contravening parking regulations when he appeared before Manchester magistrates.

A traffic warden spotted Panwar, with his disabled grandma nowhere in sight, parking his black Audi TT on Marsden Street in the city on August 29.

At first he told the warden he was on the way to pick up his poorly mother from a doctor's appointment at St John Street.

He insisted he had never used the badge on the street before but when the warden said he had seen the same vehicle at the same spot on another occasion, Panwar said: "OK, well maybe I did."

Then he admitted it was his grandma, not his mother, who he was picking up.

The lawyer, who defended himself in court, said he had tried to park on St John Street so his elderly grandma, who uses a wheelchair, could make her private doctor's appointment at a clinic on the street.

"The whole purpose was for her to go to the doctors and nothing else. I didn't realise she had to physically be with myself to park.

"I didn't realise there was an offence being committed whatsoever," he told the court.

He admitted, when challenged by the chairman of the bench Trevor Cunliffe, that he had brought no proof of the doctor's appointment to court.

Panwar, who works in conveyancing for a Manchester law firm, was fined £360 and ordered to pay £329 costs.

Warning Panwar he must pay his fine promptly, Mr Cunliffe said: "Failure to pay could mean the bailiffs knocking on your door and your Audi TT going."

The Solicitor's Tribunal said it was unlikely Panwar would lose his job but he could be disciplined.

Panwar was sentenced yesterday for cheating the Blue Badge system, which entitles disabled people to park for free. The holder must be present when it is used.
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