Woman sold fake disabled parking paperwork to Miami Beach drivers, state attorney says

When you think Miami Beach and fake documents, perhaps you think of people selling kids fake IDs to get into Vendome. But Nicole Cardona, police say, went for grown folks’ money — selling fraudulent paperwork that let the buyer successfully apply for a disability parking placard.

On Thursday, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, in concert with Miami Beach and Miami-Dade police, announced Cardona’s arrest on charges of forgery; criminal use of a public record or public records information; organized scheme to defraud, under $20,000; and false official statements. Cardona, 26, was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center just before noon Thursday.

“While profiteering from the sale of illegal handicapped parking placards may seem like a small issue to many who live beyond Miami Beach,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said, “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 Beach Police Chief Richard Clements said: “The fraudulent use of disabled parking permits is certainly not a victimless crime. The victims are those who legitimately need the parking spaces.”

According to a release by Fernandez Rundle’s office, a Miami Beach police officer saw a driver getting out of a vehicle parked in a space reserved for the disabled. After talking to the driver, the officer learned the appropriate parking placard had been acquired after the driver paid a woman $150 for an application. The driver learned about the woman through a coworker.

The release says police ran two undercover buys from Cardona, each time getting a completed application with a doctor’s signature and medical license number for $200. But, police noticed, each application had the same handwriting, though they were supposed to come from different local doctors.

Both doctors told investigators they didn’t sign those documents.