Finding a parking space in Greenwich can be tricky, but one woman decided her best option was to use a dead person’s disabled parking badge.

The 40-year-old  woman was attending college and was using the Blue Badge to get the best parking spaces.

Mesila Adams, of Lethbridge Close in Lewisham, pleaded guilty at Bexley Magistrates’ Court to using the badge.

She was discovered by Greenwich Council investigators who spotted her car parked in a disabled parking bay at Royal Hill in Greenwich on November 15.

When the officers checked the name on the badge, they discovered the owner was in fact dead, only then to spot an obviously living woman return to the car to drive it away.

Adams was then confronted about her use of the badge and it was confiscated.

Her vehicle had also been seen on November 1 in Gloucester Circus, Greenwich, displaying the same badge.

When Adams was interviewed by council investigators, she originally said that she did not know whose badge it was or that the badge holder was deceased.

She claimed that a friend, whose address she was unable to give beyond that she lived in Stratford, had left it in her car for her to use.

Adams did eventually plead guilty and was sentenced on April 28, fined £180 and ordered her to pay costs of £470.80 with a £30 victim surcharge.

Councillor Maureen O’Mara, cabinet member for customer services and anti-fraud, said: “As part of its on-going commitment to prevent and detect fraud the Royal Borough is taking rigorous action to tackle Blue Badge misuse.

“This prosecution is good news for all genuine Blue Badge holders who so often are inconvenienced by other car drivers who take up valuable parking spaces whilst misusing Blue Badges they have no right to use.”