An error occurred in Baden AG when reading the photos from the speed cameras. Instead of the real offender, an 81-year-old Italian woman received a letter from the public prosecutor.
As the “Aargauer Zeitung” reports, an 81-year-old Italian woman recently received a letter from Switzerland. A letter from the Baden public prosecutor’s office informed the elderly person that she had been flashed on July 23 in Baden for speeding.
The bill: 120 francs fine plus costs – several hundred francs in total. But the Italian assures that she was not driving that day and that she was not in an Opel, as we see in the radar photo.
Her lawyer addressed the prosecution, explaining that her client was very ill that day and that her car, a Toyota Aygo, did not match the one in the radar photo. He assumed it was a reading error.
The Supreme Court rejects the revision
The public prosecutor responded, but the ten-day deadline for appealing had long passed. According to spokesperson Adrian Schuler, the lawyer’s letter only arrived two weeks after the deadline had expired. This is why the public prosecutor was forced to file a request for review with the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, however, ruled in favor of the Italian. This was not new evidence, but an erroneous assessment of the evidence, which precluded any revision. “The Federal Court requires that the opposition procedure be respected when the deadline has passed without reaction,” declared the TF. The error was only discovered thanks to the lawyer’s letter.
A technical error is to blame
According to the police, it was a technical error. As Baden municipal police chief Martin Brönnimann explains, the system had recognized a “G” as a “C” and had therefore assigned the wrong license plate.
He emphasizes, however, that such errors are extremely rare – out of the 70,000 fines issued each year. Those affected should always come forward when they doubt the correctness of a fine, advises Brönnimann.
The real speed offender was eventually found and had already paid.