A woman is facing charges after authorities said she was selling fake disabled parking documents throughout Miami Beach.
Nicole Cardona, 26, is facing charges of organized scheme to defraud, forgery, false official statements and criminal use of a public record, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office announced Thursday.
Cardona allegedly sold applications for permanent disabled parking permits, complete with forged doctor signatures, which allowed her customers to fraudulently obtain parking placards issued by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
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The investigation into Cardona began when a Miami Beach detective spotted a driver park in a disabled spot. The car had a disabled permit displayed but the circumstances appeared suspicious, and when the driver was questioned he admitted he had paid $150 to a woman for the documents to get the placard, officials said.
Police then arranged two undercover operations where they purchased disabled parking permit applications. Cardona allegedly requested a copy of the buyer’s driver’s license and a $200 payment in exchange.
Each fully completed application had the same handwriting style throughout the entire application, and included the printed name, medical license number and signatures of two different local doctors who denied signing those documents, authorities said.
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"While profiteering from the sale of illegal handicapped parking placards may seem like a small issue to many who live beyond Miami Beach, this enterprise which allegedly involved the forging of doctors’ signatures on official documents, is a criminal act and impacts the daily lives of numerous residents living in the city," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement.
Miami Beach Police said they'd been "inundated" with resident complaints about drivers abusing the disabled parking placards.
"The fraudulent use of disabled parking permits is certainly not a victimless crime. The victims are those who legitimately need the parking spaces," Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements said in a statement. "Our department is
cracking down on the violators and those who facilitate obtaining the placards."
Cardona was booked into jail and was being held on $20,500 bond Thursday, records showed. Attorney information wasn't available.
