Threat of 10 years' jail for fake parking pass

A manager at the Dubai Media City complex is in court accused of forging a parking permit.

DUBAI // A manager at the Dubai Media City complex faces a possible 10 years in prison for forging a parking permit and displaying it in his car. PL, 37, who is Greek, pleaded guilty before the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance yesterday to forging a copy of a parking permit. He told Judge Hamad Abdul Latif: "I did not mean to do anything wrong. I honestly did not know that I was breaking the law."

But public prosecutors asked the court to enforce the punishment for forgery of an official document, which can lead to a 10-year prison term. According to the prosecution, PL admitted he colour-scanned the expired permit and put a new date on the forged document. It was spotted by a parking warden on June 21 displayed in PL's Lexus on Zabeel Road. The warden told prosecutors that the document appeared suspicious. When he checked, he found out that the permit did not officially exist.

PL's lawyer argued that the charge was invalid. "My defendant was charged by public prosecution with forging an original document. "He, in fact, only forged a copy of it, therefore we request the court to review his charge," said the lawyer. PL, who was remanded on bail, was ordered to return to court on September 28 for witness testimonies. [e-mail]