A car is being driven away on lorry in the centre of Nottingham during a very hot Friday afternoon. A small crowd of onlookers gathers and begins to speculate on why the vehicle is being taken - with some believing that the car simply has no insurance.
But this is in fact one of the hundreds of offences taking place every month in Nottingham related to blue badges and disabled parking bays. Those in charge of protecting the blue badge scheme say the misuse and abuse of them is getting worse, with 573 offences recorded during the last calendar year.
Nottinghamshire Live joined Marcus Hall, 42, a compliance and fraud officer with Nottingham City Council, for one of his regular patrols inspecting blue badges. The day we join him (May 26) happens to be a national day of blue badge enforcement action, but this work is something he says his team are doing day in, day out.
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There are 32 civil enforcement officers in Nottingham who have the power to inspect blue badges, checking details up on a national database. It's something Marcus demonstrates as we begin our patrol on Wollaton Street, with a simple scan on his phone pulling up details including the name, age and address of the blue badge holder.
There is also a landline number which Marcus calls to check that the blue badge holder is not at home, which would be a misuse of the badge. With Wollaton Street showing no signs of any offences, we continue our journey around the city as Marcus tells us about some of the more shocking incidents his team has dealt with.
He said: "We've just prosecuted a guy who was using his dead dad's badge on the day of his funeral. He was in the city getting coffees from McDonalds.
"His initial excuse was that he was swapping his tie for the funeral, but he was actually just getting coffees. These are the kinds of people we are up against."
The use of a dead relative's blue badge is one of several offences that Marcus and his team have to tackle, with 38 of these offences being recorded last year. Another common offence is the use of stolen badges, many of which have recently originated from London, which Marcus says is becoming "renowned" for people stealing blue badges.
In Nottingham, Marcus says he recently dealt with someone who had purchased a stolen blue badge from Amazon, along with a wallet to put it in. Despite the variety of offences being dealt with across Nottingham there is one in particular that is most visible during our patrol - people parking in disabled bays without a blue badge.
In the space of two hours, we see five cars misusing these spaces. The first one is spotted on King Street but given that Marcus is not in uniform today, he doesn't have the power to issue a ticket.
The cars we spot are therefore reported in to officers, who come and issue a ticket and, in some cases, authorise the vehicle to be taken to a pound near the Blenheim Industrial Estate in Bulwell. As we walk on to Thurland Street, Marcus reports a Peugeot to officers for being parked in a bay without a badge.
Within minutes, a truck has arrived to take the car away to the pound. Just as the truck is about to set off, the car's owner comes back and is shocked to find her car on the back of a lorry.
She says she does have a blue badge and has left it at home, with the blue badge having been issued for her son. Marcus questions if the blue badge is for her young son who is with her, but she says it is in fact for her eldest who is currently at school - a situation which would therefore have been a misuse of the badge anyway.
Those who have their car taken to the pound pay a £105 fee to release it, as well as fine of between £35 and £25. But for every day the car is at the pound, the cost goes up by £24.
As we're watching this, a call comes in about a lost badge being spotted in a car elsewhere in the city. The situation behind this could range from someone having stolen this badge through to someone having found their lost badge without telling the authorities.
It's certainly a lot of offences within a two-hour window, and Marcus says the problem is "getting worse." He says: "The numbers day to day are very dependent on all sorts of things like the weather and any events that might be on.
"People sometimes jump to assumptions about what we're doing, but what we're actually doing is trying to protect the blue badge system and it's something we take very seriously. We've sometimes had people visit Nottingham for the first time and get caught for misusing a blue badge straight away, but they might have been misusing it elsewhere for two years."
Despite the determination of Marcus' team, the number of offences they will deal with this year looks set to be higher. For most offences, cautions and warnings are issued, but there have been 27 prosecutions since 2020.
So far this year, there have been 258 incidents of misuse or abuse, with the number therefore set to surpass the 573 recorded last year. We finish our visit in the Old Market Square, with Marcus having just reported another two cars illegally parked in disabled bays on Friar Lane.
Despite the growing scale of the challenge, Marcus says he and his team remain determined. He finishes our patrol by saying: "Don't come to Nottingham if you're thinking of misusing your blue badge, because you will get caught."
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