Corrupt road traffic office employees go to court Bülach
Published: Tuesday, Aug 27th 2024, 05:00
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Two Road Traffic Office employees and an examiner will have to answer to the Bülach ZH District Court today, Tuesday. The three ensured that around 70 candidates passed their driving test despite making mistakes. In return, the accused were bribed with cash.
The three men have basically confessed, which is why the trials can be conducted in summary proceedings. This means that the court will probably also adopt the Zurich public prosecutor's proposed verdict after a brief questioning.
According to the three indictments, the accused are the 43-year-old former registration manager of the Bassersdorf Road Traffic Office, a 32-year-old employee of the registration office and a 34-year-old examination expert.
"Benevolent audit acceptance"
The expert allowed around 70 candidates to pass the driving test, even though they made more or less major mistakes during the test drive. For example, he waved a man through who had already failed three times previously. For his "benevolent test approval", the 34-year-old received 500 francs in cash in each case, making a total of 35,000 francs.
He passed on some of the money to the two "intermediaries", the employees of the road traffic office who were also accused. They used the internal system to ensure that the 70 candidates who were willing to pay were able to take their test with the "tolerant" expert.
Conditional custodial sentences
The public prosecutor's office is demanding a conditional prison sentence of twelve months for the two office employees. The audit expert is to receive a conditional prison sentence of 24 months. All three should also pay a fine of CHF 500 and repay part of the bribe money to the canton.
When the matter was uncovered internally in 2021, the three accused were arrested and released. To minimize the damage, the Road Traffic Office wrote to numerous drivers who had passed their test with the "tolerant" expert and asked them to take a test drive. It is not known how many of the candidates had to hand in their driving license as a result.
The case came to public attention early last summer because one of the three dismissed employees appealed against his dismissal to the administrative court, albeit without success. Several candidates have also been convicted so far. They received conditional fines and penalties for bribery.
©Keystone/SDA
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