Baby business owner exposed for falsely using disabled son’s Blue Badge while she shopped at Gunwharf Quays

Peggyann Smith, who runs Sienna's Baby Boutique in Wickham, spun a web of lies after she was caught parking on double yellow lines in a no waiting area in Crasswell Street, St Georges Square, Portsmouth, on November 21 around 1pm.

Suspicions were aroused when a Portsmouth City Council enforcement officer spotted the 44-year-old’s Mercedes parked with a Blue Badge belonging to her son - who was 15 miles away at school.

Smith, of Botley Road, Shedfield, was approached by the officer when she returned to her car where she “continued to deceive”, Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court heard. The defendant initially claimed her son was nearby but checks from a data protection notice submitted to the school would later prove he had not been removed from school.

During an interview at the council’s civic officers in December, Smith claimed she was in Portsmouth to look for an NHS dentist for her son before backtracking and saying she “went for a drive with a friend” into Portsmouth instead. “She went on to admit that she did not attend any dentist appointment, nor did she visit or contact any dentists in Portsmouth in regards to her son,” the enforcement officer said in a statement read out to court.

The officer added: “The defendant states she was not in a clear state of mind, and in a rush, when she parked the vehicle as she could not recall the time she had parked or had an intention to park in St Georges Square and felt as if she had to go for a walk to clear her head. 

“She then provided another account, claiming that she had gone into Gunwharf Quays shopping centre to return a jumper but she was in a rush and didn’t stay for very long. It was put to the defendant that this new version of events was in fact false as she had been sighted by localised CCTV shopping for almost a three-hour period in Gunwharf Quays.”

The officer went on to say Smith was “aware she has no personal entitlement to the use of the badge in the absence of her son” and said it was not her “intention to use the disabled badge when she had pulled over to go for a walk”, with her admitting she “just did it without thinking”.

Smith, who entered a guilty plea by post to misuse of a Blue Badge, was given a financial penalty totalling £528 at court.