Nobody likes paying traffic fines, but few have had the gumption to avoid them so thoroughly as Mario Hili. The 64-year-old Australian man came up with an ingenious method of fooling police into canceling any fines against him by reporting his car stolen. Logically, if the car hadn't been in his possession when cameras snapped photos of its license plate, he couldn't have been behind the wheel, and therefore whatever infraction its driver was guilty of couldn't have been his doing but that of the thief.



Except that he was lying. According to the Geelong Advertiser, Hili was caught fibbing about the frequent theft of his car after reporting it stolen for the 21st time in 13 years. To his credit, we suppose, Hili fessed up to his crimes after being caught, pleading guilty to seven counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception and three counts of making a false document.



A judge convicted Hili and fined him 2,500 Australian dollars, though it's worth noting that no demerits were added to his license.