Legal worker, 25, who doctored ticket with Tipp-Ex to save £9 on parking her Mercedes fined almost £800 after she’s caught
A PARALEGAL who doctored a ticket with Tipp-Ex to save £9 on parking her Mercedes was fined almost £800 after she was caught.
Malikah Richards, 25, paid just £1.80 for an hour’s parking before trying to dupe inspectors by whiting out the ‘1’ and writing ’10’ to make it look like she had paid the day rate of £10.80.
Her botched attempt was spotted when a warden looked through the windscreen of her white Mercedes C220 as she visited her boyfriend’s house.
Shockingly, a court heard Richards had amassed more than £2,000 in parking fines since March last year in Portsmouth, Hants – receiving a total of 27 tickets.
Prosecutor Ben Attrill told Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court Richards’ car was impounded after the fine was not paid and eventually reclaimed by the finance company she had used to buy the car, as she had also missed payments for it.
He said: “Portsmouth City Council parking officers were patrolling the street when they came across a Mercedes parked in a pay and display bay.
“They inspected the ticket and noticed it had been altered by Tipp-Ex and by hand using black ink.”
I only had enough money to pay for an hour. I put Tipp-Ex and pen on the ticket to make out I’d paid for the whole day. I knew why my vehicle had been taken away
Malikah Richards, 25
Mr Attrill said police eventually got involved and arrested the defendant, who admitted she had faked the ticket when interviewed.
She told them: “I only had enough money to pay for an hour.
“I put Tipp-Ex and pen on the ticket to make out I’d paid for the whole day. I knew why my vehicle had been taken away.”
Richards, of Portsmouth, admitted two counts of fraud for changing the ticket and then using it.
She told magistrates: “I have pleaded guilty. I no longer have the vehicle. I now have a job but was not working at the time.”
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Magistrates told her she had been ‘silly’ trying to fake the amount paid as they slapped her with a £440 fine and ordered her to pay £340.
Speaking after the case, Portsmouth City Council investigations officer Stephen Goodall said: “The council impounded the defendant’s vehicle due to the amount of outstanding penalty charge notices and debt accrued.
“She stated that she would enter a payment plan, and the vehicle was released to her but she reneged on this agreement, and continued to accrue more penalty notices in Southsea, near her boyfriend’s address.”
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