Conviction of the registered owner of a vehicle who is not the offender
In this Federal Supreme Court decision (7B_545/2023), the registered owner of a vehicle was fined under the simplified traffic fine procedure for a minor traffic offense.
However, the owner was not driving the vehicle at the time the offense was committed.
This situation falls under the Law on Simplified Fines (LAO), which applies to minor traffic violations.
According to Art. 7 para. 1 LAO, if the driver of the vehicle is not identified at the time of the offense, the fine is issued in the name of the registered owner listed on the vehicle registration certificate.
Once the fine is issued, the registered owner has three options:
- Pay the fine within 30 days (Art. 7 para. 2 LAO); otherwise, a standard criminal procedure is initiated (Art. 7 para. 3 LAO).
- Provide the identity of the actual driver so the fine can be transferred to the correct person (Art. 7 para. 4 LAO).
- If unable to identify the driver, the owner must prove that the vehicle was used without their knowledge or consent, and that they took all reasonable steps to prevent such use. Failing that, the registered owner is required to pay the fine themselves (Art. 7 para. 5 LAO).
This provision thus establishes a subsidiary administrative responsibility for the registered vehicle owner, making it difficult to simply leave the fine unpaid.
But what about criminal liability for the committed offense?
In this case, both administrative and criminal responsibility were assigned to the vehicle owner, even though they had clearly shown that they were not the one who committed the infraction.
The Federal Supreme Court held that such a conviction is contrary to the law:
A registered vehicle owner cannot be found criminally guilty of a minor traffic violation if they did not physically commit the offense. Criminal liability cannot be transferred by default.
However, the vehicle owner must still pay the simplified fine due to their failure to inform the authorities of the actual offender’s identity.
Written by Me Pauline Schott