JEDDAH – Police arrested a man in his 40s who went around going to shops claiming that he was a municipality inspector. He took hefty sums of money from workers in the shop to overlook irregularities and threatened owners to shut down their businesses down if they do not pay. He went to several shops at Al-Sabeel neighborhood and imposed fines on violations he made up. Every time he visited a shop, he ordered workers to give him their residency permits. Afterward, he would tell them he was ready to give them back their permits and turn a blind eye to the violations if they paid him a certain amount of money, which they did. His greed eventually led to his downfall. In his overzealousness he went to the same shop more than once within a short period of time. One of the Indian workers grew suspicious and called the police to report the fake inspector. He told the impostor that he did not have money at that moment, and asked him to return in an hour. Believing him, the fake inspector agreed. During this time, the Indian worker called the police. However, the impostor did not show up on the same day. He came the next day only to find police waiting for him. He was arrested He admitted to posing as a municipality inspector and taking money from different shops. A spokesman for Jeddah police said the impostor turned out to be jobless. He urged all shop workers to request officials who come for inspections to produce their IDs and call the police if they refuse.
