A paralegal who used Tipp-Ex and a biro to alter a parking permit for her Mercedes Benz has been fined £780 for her extremely poor attempt at fraud.

Malikah Richards paid £1.80 for an hour's parking in Portsmouth last October, but manuscript-amended the expiry time to 19:34 and the amount paid to £10.80. 

The time is okay, but that £10.80...ouch.

While she visited her boyfriend and attended a job interview, Portsmouth City Council parking officers spotted the ticket was phoney, because they have eyes, and towed her car. Richards ran the C-Class Merc on a hire purchase plan, but had multiple outstanding payments and never picked it up. It was eventually recovered by the finance company, reported the Portsmouth News.

When she was arrested the 25-year-old told police that she was unemployed and could only afford to pay for an hour. "I put Tipp-Ex and pen on the ticket to make out I’d paid for the whole day", she said. "I knew why my vehicle had been taken away."

Richards, who now works at Churchers Solicitors in Southsea, pleaded guilty to adapting and using a false article, and was fined £780. During her hearing at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court, it emerged that she had already racked up over £2,000 in parking fines since March 2018. She had also been issued with 27 notices, and the car had been impounded a month earlier. On that occasion it was released after she promised to enter a payment plan, but, said a council investigation officer, "she reneged on this agreement, and continued to accrue more penalty notices in Southsea, near to her boyfriend's address".