A California millionaire has been arrested after allegedly fixing fraudulent disabled parking placards to eight luxury vehicles in order to secure the best spaces in his apartment complex's parking garage. Police in Irvine acted on a tip-off and raided the garage on Friday, finding five Mercedes-Benz and three BMW vehicles displaying the fake permits. The case has drawn attention as an example of alleged placard abuse by a wealthy driver who, critics noted online, could easily have paid for extra parking instead.

The seized vehicles included a $200,000 Mercedes G-Wagon and a $100,000 BMW X6, with six of the eight fake placards traced to registrations in Maryland and Wisconsin. Under California law, placard misuse is a misdemeanour carrying fines of up to $1,000 and up to six months in jail, while possessing forged government documents can be charged as a felony carrying up to three years in custody. The suspect has been taken into custody and his placards confiscated, though police have not released his identity, and the state continues to grapple with widespread placard fraud despite reforms introduced in 2017 to tighten renewal checks.