Priest ‘used dead man’s disabled badge’

Father William Haymaker was allegedly caught parking in a disabled bay using an expired blue badge which belonged to a man who had died three years earlier.

East Sussex County Council is prosecuting the Bexhill-based religious leader under the Fraud Act 2006 for possession of an article to commit fraud.

The 62-year-old appeared in court before magistrates and denied the charge.

The ordained minister - a rector of St Paul’s Anglican Parish in Bexhill which is part of the Anglican Independent Communion - is due to stand trial at Hastings Magistrates’ Court on August 31.

Council prosecutors allege that on May 26, 2015, Haymaker parked his car in a disabled bay in Bolton Road, Eastbourne.

They have accused him of displaying a blue badge in the car which had expired and belonged to a man from Bexhill who had died in August 2012.

The council has campaigned in recent years to crack down blue badge fraud and previously said it will investigate and prosecute alleged offenders to free up disabled bays for registered users.

As well as supporting his parishioners and leading services Haymaker, of Suffolk Road, Bexhill, said he has been helping children in crisis for more than 25 years. Rather than raising money, he said his goal is to support organisations which can help change lives like Project New Life which tries to look out for under privileged children in eastern Europe, according to a blog he writes online.

In 2006 he voiced his anger and hurt when his son Willem was hospitalised after being viciously attacked in a park by a gang of eight teenagers.

They then boasted about the attack in a rap song posted online.

Haymaker called on the community to help track down the culprits and told The Argus at the time: “We don’t have words to describe our shock to learn that a song has been created celebrating their assault, their enjoyment at the blood and suffering, and providing a cold and calculated testimony as to what they did.”

In March last year he contacted The Argus to tell of his shock at finding an open grave left unattended by grave yard staff for more than 20 minutes after a service in the Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Warren Road, Woodingdean.

At the time he said: “To allow a fresh grave to be left open and abandoned is absolute sacrilege.

“This behaviour is repugnant. I am dismayed and shocked – someone should be at the grave side until it is filled.”