"Disabled parking passes" being sold on eBay in the UK

Apparently there's a quite an uproar in the UK over the fact that the blue badges that allow people to park in handicapped spots are being sold surreptitiously on eBay to the highest bidder.  They are going for about £5,000.  I've included a summary of an article about this problem below.  This is definitely not cool.  Has anyone heard of this sort of thing happening in the United States?

here's the article:

Scandal of disabled parking 'blue badges' being sold on eBay for £5,000

Blue badges issued to disabled drivers are being sold for £5,000 each on the popular Internet auction site eBay.

The badges allow motorists to park free-of-charge in disabled bays in town centres and leave their cars on yellow lines.

In London, they allow drivers to enter the congestion charge zone without paying. This equates to a saving of £2,000, before parking is taken into account.

The rising cost of parking and using the congestion zone in the capital has led to a flourishing black market in the badges, members of the all-party Transport Select Committee have been told.

According to the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, people were applying for the badge because of its financial value.

It is understood that blue badges have been put up for sale on eBay. There have been occasions where the holder has died and relatives have decided to sell the badge rather than return it.

The committee also found that doctors are wrongly approving badges to people who exaggerate their disabilities.

The number of disabled badges has soared. In 1987 there were only 673,000 in circulation, equivalent to 14 per 1,000 people.

By last year this had risen to 2.3 million or 46 badges for every 1,000 people. It is anticipated that there will be more than three million registered disabled motorists by 2012.