No criminal record for fake permits
A man who produced and sold fake parking stickers has been sentenced to probation and community service, but no jail and no criminal record.
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Ephraim 09:50 on 2026-06-05 Permalink
And now. the new for a new security system. May I suggest a validating QR code that ties back to the database to issue tickets that prevents the agent from issuing a ticket based on GPS data. So if the QR code is fake, the printer will still issue tickets, but if it’s real, it just validates and says “NEXT”
Joey 10:26 on 2026-06-05 Permalink
Not sure I understand but the issue is that the ticketing agents can’t be expected to verify that every sticker is legit – there’s just far too many. No word about any kind of consequences for the buyers of these stickers, which feels like a huge failure for the cops.
Nicholas 12:53 on 2026-06-05 Permalink
The buyers absolutely should get it trouble too, as Joey says.
I bet there are a few ways you could do validation. A QR code, if large enough, could be scanned by a parking inspector vehicle without having to stop, just as it can scan for parking spots with vehicles that the system says hasn’t paid. But it’d have to be pretty large I’d think, or you’d have to get out in person. Another option is an RFID, but though it’s low power, it’s not no power, so you’d have to get out of the car and apply the reader to it within a centimetre, the same way OPUS cards can be read without the card itself having power, but inducing it from the reader. Maybe there’s some way to make it work without getting out of the car, but I fully agree it should be validated before printing a ticket.
Joey 14:26 on 2026-06-05 Permalink
They can already just check the database to see if the license plate is registered – the thing is that there’s no reason for agents to do that, unless the assumption is that there are many, many cars with counterfeit stickers. I guess with the automated camera system now in use it’s conceivable that you could scan a QR code on each sticker, but I would assume you’d get too many false negatives to make it worthwhile (my sense is the current system can quickly determine if there are any cars parked in a sticker zone without a sticker, without the agent needing to do anything other than drive down the block; validating that each sticker is legit would be a bigger task, though I suppose you could try a system whereby license plates are scanned, which might trigger fewer false negatives). Anyway, massive fines for the counterfeit ticket buyers would go a long way to preventing this kind of thing.
Metered spots are different, because the agents know which spots are not currently being paid for, and they can easily tell if car is parked there.
Ephraim 14:28 on 2026-06-05 Permalink
@Nicholas And how do they read the transponders on the A30 and A25? Obviously they can be read at not just a distance, but at speed.
Ephraim 14:32 on 2026-06-05 Permalink
You should try metered parking in Dubai and Abu Dhabi…. you better be quick and pay those meters or you will receive the ticket. Don’t even THINK of walking away for a minute…. or sitting in the car without paying.
mare 23:14 on 2026-06-05 Permalink
Umm, doesn’t every sticker has a license plate number on it? The parking agent car can just use a license plate scanner and check the database to make sure that every car has a valid parking permit, if they have a sticker on their windshield or not (or when it’s covered my snow).
Of course that’s an expensive solution if the parking permits are so cheap. (The most expensive permit is $217 in my street, for I think 9 months. Compared to the cost of renting that amount of space for say, a garden, or to pitch a tent to live.)
Ian 23:14 on 2026-06-06 Permalink
One distinction is that it’s not rent, it’s just a permit. You don’t get an assigned spot or any guarantee that there will even be a spot. Private parking spaces cost considerably more for a reason
Joey 09:55 on 2026-06-08 Permalink
@mare it’s impractical to think that the agents will check every seemingly validly parked car for a counterfeit sticker – they look for cars with no stickers, print tickets, and move on