Is it Worth it???? I don't think so...........

[Guest mr X]

ASIAONE / MOTORING / OWNERS / OTHERS / STORY

Thu, Oct 15, 2009

The New Paper

Man caught folding parking coupon tabs to save $1

By Amanda Yong

HE TOOK his family of four to Little India for a shopping trip.

But before he bought anything, Periasamy Rajendran, 43, a civil engineer, decided to save a little money.

Instead of tearing off the tabs on the $1 parking coupon he placed in his car, he folded the tabs backwards.

Because of that, he is now $800 poorer.

The Indian national pleaded guilty to tampering with a parking coupon last month and was slapped with the $800 fine by District Judge Joseph Yeo.

The court was told that on 23 May, Periasamy, his wife and two children were walking back to the family car parked at Kinta Road, off Serangoon Road, after a spot of late afternoon shopping.

Waiting there were two enforcement officers from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). They had been standing there for the past five minutes as they suspected that the parking coupon in Periasamy's car had been tampered with.

Caught

When the officers inspected the coupon, they found that the day, month and year tabs for the date 23 May 2009 had been folded backwards.

So, too, were the hour and minute tabs.

On closer inspection, the officers discovered that there were several other tabs with fold marks on them. They included four day tabs, two hour tabs, and two minute tabs.

This indicated that the coupon had been re-used, according to court documents.

In his mitigation, Periasamy's lawyer, MrRajan Supramaniam, said the offence was a one-off incident and his client "regrets his actions very much".

Periasamy has been working here since 1997 and this was his first brush with the law.

A URA spokesman said that between 2006 and 2008, an average of about 550 people were charged and fined in court annually for tampering with their parking coupons.

In the first six months of this year, the figure was 250.

For displaying a coupon that shows alteration, erasure or other irregularity, indicating that it had been tampered with, Periasamy could have been fined $2,000 and jailed three months.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

http://www.asiaone.com/Motoring/Owners/Others/Story/A1Story20091014-173633.html