Dodging parking costs can cost you far more than a few dirhams when you resort to counterfeiting…

We all love a freebie or two – however not at the cost of breaking the law.

One man has learnt his lesson the hard way after being handed down some severe punishments for tampering with RTA parking tickets in Al Baraha near Deira.

An Indian driver, referred to in court documents as K.S., forged dates on two tickets in order to score free parking near Al Khansa Roundabout earlier this year.

The act has now landed him a Dhs150,000 fine, three months in jail, and deportment from the UAE following his release.

An RTA inspector registered the first forgery on April 20, after clocking an apparently altered ticket on the 41-year-old man’s dashboard.

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“I noticed that the car driver had tampered with the dates mentioned on the ticket … it was April 20 but the dates mentioned on the ticket read April 21,” the inspector testified, according to Gulf News. “I gazed at the ticket closely and it was obvious that the ticket had been forged.”

The inspector missed K.S. before he could corner him, however he stumbled upon the same vehicle displaying another falsified ticket just days later.

“This time I called up the police… they called him up and summoned him to the parking lot where he was apprehended. Two forged tickets were seized in his possession.”

While fines for parking illegally can range from Dhs100 up to Dhs1,000 (if you block a fire hydrant), it’s the counterfeiting that really landed K.S. in hot water.

He was convicted of forging an electronic document by the Dubai Court of First Instance after pleading guilty to altering two tickets so he could park for free.

K.S. has two weeks to appeal the ruling – but one thing he definitely won’t be doing again is taking to a parking ticket with a Biro again…

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Image: Getty