Dubai: An 18-year-old student was handed a three-month suspended imprisonment after he apologised, in court yesterday, that he forged a Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) ticket to park for free.
"I am guilty. I am sorry and I won't do it again," contended the Indian student when he defended himself before Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad at the Dubai Court of First Instance.
Prosecutors accused 18-year-old W.K. of forging the RTA ticket using a coloured photocopying machine and tampering with the expiry date of the original ticket so he could park freely.
Towards the end of yesterday's hearing, Presiding Judge Abdul Jawad awarded W.K. a three-month imprisonment which was suspended for a period of three years. The suspect ought not to repeat the crime during the three-year period.
An Egyptian RTA inspector testified that he exposed the forged ticket placed on the dashboard of a car in a public parking place in Karama.
"I informed my supervisor who came to the place and then reported the police. When the police contacted the car owner, an Indian person answered the phone and said his son used the car.
The suspect came to the scene and when the police confronted him, he immediately confessed that he forged the RTA ticket," the inspector claimed during prosecution questioning.
Dubai Police's criminal laboratory confirmed that the seized ticket was forged. Records said the defendant admitted, during police and prosecution's questioning, that he forged the ticket.
The primary judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
