Jury takes 14 minutes to clear Donna Air of parking permit fraud charge

 
“Always in rush”: Donna Air arriving at Isleworth crown court today
29 March 2012
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The actress Donna Air was today cleared of fraud. A jury took just 14 minutes to acquit her of fraudulently applying for a parking permit.

Earlier she wept in the dock at Isleworth crown court as she described how she was left with two broken legs after a car ran her over in February last year.

Air, 32, was charged with applying for a Kensington and Chelsea residents parking permit when she was living in Westminster.

The presenter, who has an eight-year-old daughter Freya by casino owner Damian Aspinall, told the court she was an ordinary “working single mummy” but that she has a “girl” who does the “mundane” things for her like applying for parking permits.

Air admitted applying for a Kensington permit when she moved from her Pimlico flat to her Holland Park apartment in January last year but said she signed the form, which was filled in by her helper, without reading it.

The former Big Breakfast and MTV presenter said she did not see the instructions telling applicants they must declare if they already have a permit from another local authority.

Air said she did not realise she was not allowed to have two parking permits from two boroughs at the same time as she never reads “terms and conditions” because she is “always in a rush”.

The court heard Air moved back to her Pimlico flat at short notice because she got a very “generous” offer from a tenant for her Holland Park flat. But just before the move last February she was run down by a car while she was with her daughter.

Air broke down saying: “I’m sorry. I’ve never really had to speak about the accident. I was with my daughter. I was getting into my car and I was hit by a vehicle from behind. It was so horrible.”

The court heard Air suffered multiple fractures and spent more than three months in a wheelchair, running up more than £2,000 in minicab bills to get around.

Her lawyer Benn Maguire said it was wrong to suggest Air was falsely using a permit to save money on parking charges during that time as she was unable to drive.

Kensington and Chelsea launched legal proceedings after Air’s Mini Cooper was seen parked on June 7 with both a Kensington and a Westminster permit on display.

Air said she had just resumed driving again after recovering from her injuries and did not realise she should have returned the Kensington permit.

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