Arvi Ndreca parked illegally to visit mobile phone shop
Blacks Road, Hammersmith. Picture: Google Streetview
A celebrity bodyguard could ‘be fired’ after using a stolen blue badge to avoid paying for parking on a shopping trip, his lawyer said.
Arvi Ndreca, 26, will have to pay £926 in fines and costs after being caught using the badge to park on Blacks Road, close to Hammersmith Station, on 8 February.
When a Hammersmith and Fulham parking inspector checked the blue badge displayed in his Mercedes-Benz they discovered it had previously been reported stolen on August 17 2021.
When Ndreca, of Great West Road in Brentford, returned to his car the inspector confronted him. At first, he said it belonged to a friend in Finchley before he admitted he did not know the badge holder and he was just on his way to Vodaphone which is nearby on Hammersmith Broadway.
He added that his uncle had told him it was fine to use the badge in his 2018 E220 diesel – a model which can cost more than £20,000 to buy second-hand - and if he had known otherwise he wouldn’t have it.
Defending Ndreca his lawyer Ms Fowler said, “[Ndreca] works as a chauffeur and a personal bodyguard. Not for your average clients but for high-profile clients. He is subject to very strict checks. He will lose his job.”
Since Ndreca has been fined he will have a criminal record for a year and he is unlikely to be allowed to work with high-profile clients during that time period.
Ms Fowler asked for Ndreca not to be fined but to be given a shorter and sharper punishment so that his criminal record would wear off sooner and he would not get fired.
But the court decided otherwise. Summing up the case the Magistrate told Ndreca, “For your guilty plea your fine is reduced to £384… The bad news is that you still owe £926. You have 28 days to pay in full.”
The bodyguard was also asked to pay Hammersmith and Fulham Council £504 in costs and a victim surcharge of £38.
Ndreca was asked to pay full costs by 21 December or bailiffs could turn up at his home and he could be charged further.
Jacob Phillips - Local Democracy Reporter
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November 24, 2022