Swiss court narrows first offender privilege for speeding offences

Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court has ruled that drivers convicted of a serious traffic offence within the previous 10 years can no longer receive a monetary penalty instead of a prison sentence, SRF reported.

The ruling followed a case involving a driver who travelled at 74 kilometres per hour in a 30 km/h zone in February 2023. The Basel-Stadt Court of Appeal sentenced him to a conditional one-year prison term for a speeding offence. A lower court had imposed a conditional monetary penalty of 180 daily rates.

The driver argued that a 2016 conviction for a serious traffic offence did not prevent him from benefiting from the first offender privilege. The Federal Supreme Court rejected his appeal.

The court said the wording, legislative history and purpose of the law showed that lawmakers intended to exclude the privilege in cases involving previous serious traffic offences. It found no basis for limiting the exclusion to only particularly severe earlier convictions.

Under the Swiss Road Traffic Act, a particularly serious traffic offence carries a prison sentence of between one and four years. Speeding offences are among those covered by the provision.