A huge fine was imposed on the driver because of his earnings/City of Zürich
A court in Switzerland imposed a huge fine on a lawyer. And he did it because he, sitting behind the wheel of his BMW 5 series, was driving in the oncoming lane on the highway.
As reported by the local publication Nau, 58- year-old lawyer faces about $116,000 in fines after being stopped in 2023 for driving dangerously close (between 26 and 40 feet) on the A1 Autobahn near Zurich at speeds of up to 74 mph h.
Swiss lawyer was driving a turbodiesel BMW 540d, reports Road and Track, and you might think this is typical behavior for a BMW owner. But what is not typical – although perhaps it should be – is the large fine that a lawyer faces through the Swiss one-day penalty system, which stipulates that fines must be based on the offender's income.
Reportedly, a lawyer earns about 1.7 million Swiss francs a year, or just over $2 million at the current exchange rate. In such cases, the court can impose a fine of 30 to 3,000 francs per day, or approximately 35 to 3,500 US dollars, but the court decided to fine the lawyer 50 daily rates, which is 1,970 Swiss francs. That's 98,500 francs, or just over $116,000. The rear passenger was also fined an additional 15,000 francs, plus another 5,000 francs for legal costs, etc.
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< br> The driver's lawyer tried to appeal the court's verdict/Freepik photo
The BMW driver's lawyer appealed the fine, but the case was transferred to a higher court. The lawyer tried to appeal, arguing that the police did not read him his rights during the questioning, and on the grounds that the video footage the police used to determine his further distance was inaccurate.
Yes, the court threw out those arguments right out the window, dismissing both claims. Nau also quoted the “millionaire's” lawyer as mentioning that his BMW 540d had “sport and racing brakes,” but the court upheld the conviction anyway, saying that the quality of the BMW's brakes made no difference.
Ultimately , the court reduced the additional fine of 15,000 francs to 10,000, but the daily rate remained, meaning the lawyer still owes 111,500 francs, or just under $131,500. Regardless of income, six figures is a lot of money to lose because someone was tailgating on the highway.