Farmer jailed, fined Dhs100,000 over fake gas

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A farmer caught driving a truck full of fake cooking gas has lost an appeal against three month imprisonment and a Dhs100, 000 fine. The Asian farmer, 32, with the help of a fugitive accomplice allegedly forged security stickers of a government’s petroleum company, prosecutors explained to the Criminal Court on Sept.24 last year.

They fixed them on valves of cylinders filled with fake cooking gas with a motive to hawk them among unsuspecting clients. He was caught hazardously smuggling 48 cylinders on an unlicenced truck.

He argued he rented a truck to transport cylinders and earn a living. His lawyer argued that he was a simple labourer who did not understand security stickers and could not have forged one even if he tried.

“The only thing he did was to transport the cylinders from one place to another as per the request of a man who hired him to do so,” said the lawyer who then requested for a lenient punishment. The court cleared him of forgery. It sentenced him to three months behind bars to be followed by deportation. Besides, it slapped him with a Dhs100, 000 fine. He has appealed and lost the case.

On the record, the company’s officer was driving in Umm Suqeim when he spotted a Mitsubishi Canter loaded with gas cylinders. It was endangering people’s lives. He stopped it. Its driver fled.

The officer contacted the Bur Dubai Police Station. Cops seized it. The officer said the stickers were all counterfeit ones. The driver turned out to be the defendant. Police traced and nabbed him.

A Pakistani corporal said the defendant said that a man had tasked him with transporting the cylinders from Ajman to a place in Al Quoz Industrial area. The man promised to reward him with Dhs300.

The man loaded them on the truck. They had stickers on them. “I fled upon being flagged down by the officer because I was too scared,” he revealed and admitted he was “wrong” to transport cylinders on the unlicenced truck.