A year-long investigation into the online sale of fake UPASS stickers has resulted in charges against a 31-year-old Calgary man.
Transit officers alerted police on June 28 after they noticed an increase in the use of high-quality, forged UPASS stickers.
“They started to notice discrepancies, repeating serial numbers and they worked closely with post-secondary institutions to make sure that there weren’t issues in the distribution of the UPASS,” said Brian Whitelaw, Superintendent of Calgary Transit.
The transit passes, which are only available to post-secondary students, were reportedly bought online and police launched an investigation after they located stickers for sale in an online classified ad.
Police say the suspect posted the ads at irregular intervals and that he used false names and phone numbers to conceal his identity.
Border services agents intercepted a package in January with 3300 forged UPASS stickers inside that were professionally printed in China and destined for the suspect.
“The shipment consisted of three bundles of suspected counterfeit Calgary UPASS stickers. The seizing officer was immediately suspicious of the security features and the printing technique of the stickers,” said Tina Karsakis, District Director for CBSA Calgary area.
“We were able to determine that there had been prior shipments. The total amount of passes really varied, from what I saw there appeared to be an increasing trend over time from when this initially began, which was before we had even suspected,” said Constable Paul Teworte, CPS Online Stolen Property (OSP) Team. “Hundreds of stickers had been ordered previously as well and I can say that hundreds had been sold based off the evidence that we have.”
Police believe the suspect sold the fake passes to Calgarians between May 2015 and January 2018 and that he made about $34,000 from the sales.
Officers executed nine separate search warrants and seized a significant amount of digital evidence.
David Philip Smerd, 31, was picked up by police on Wednesday and he is now charged with one count each of making forged documents, fraud over $5,000 and uttering forged documents.
“People are looking for that deal so I think in many respects it’s that human nature to try to find a product cheaper. I would emphasize that when people do that, a secondary seller, transit doesn’t see any of that revenue and in our need to really keep the transit pass affordable, when people are buying from secondary sellers or in the case where we have a large counterfeit operation that we end up ultimately losing money, which eventually reflects its way back into the value of a transit pass,” said Whitelaw.
Investigators say the 3300 fake transit stickers could have cost Calgary Transit about $1.3 million in lost revenue.
Smerd is scheduled to appear in court on Monday, September 10, 2018.
