District Court Bülach ZH 500 francs for a benevolent driving test - expert sentenced

500 francs for a "benevolent test acceptance" - a former Zurich traffic expert has now been sentenced for this business.

On Tuesday morning, the District Court of Bülach ZH sentenced a former traffic expert to a conditional custodial sentence of two years: The 33-year-old had pocketed 500 francs each from around 70 learner drivers - this in return for a "benevolent test acceptance".

He had always paid attention to road safety, the accused told the court. No one was driving who did not belong on the roads.

He did not offer anything specific for the money he received, which he found in an envelope on a wheel of his vehicle, he said. However, the candidates knew in advance the route they had to take, for example. He also turned a blind eye if someone didn't put their blinker on or something similar.

35,000 additional francs earned

On Tuesday, the court sentenced two other employees of the Bassersdorf Road Traffic Office to conditional prison sentences of one year. The 32- and 42-year-old men had given the expert the test candidates he had requested.

According to the indictment, the expert thus made an additional CHF 35,000 over two years. He passed almost half of this on to his two colleagues in the scheduling department. The court convicted the three men because they had accepted bribes on several occasions.

In addition to the conditional prison sentences with probation periods of between two and three years, the three former employees of the road traffic office, who were remanded in custody for up to three months, were each fined 500 francs. In addition, they must repay between 3,000 and 4,000 francs to the state.

The hearings were held in summary proceedings. The three men confessed and agreed with the prosecution's sentencing proposals. The Bülach District Court considered these to be appropriate. The judge said that the sentence seemed high. "But a case like this simply cannot happen in Switzerland."