Pay bribe, pass driving test Corrupt employees of the Zurich Road Traffic Office go to court

Two Road Traffic Office employees and an examiner will have to answer to the Bülach District Court from Tuesday.

The three men 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 carried out in abbreviated proceedings. This means that the court is likely to adopt the prosecution's proposed verdict after a brief hearing.

According to the three indictments, the accused are the 43-year-old former head of registration at the Bassersdorf Road Traffic Office, a 32-year-old employee of the registration office and a 34-year-old examination expert.

"Benevolent test 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 acceptance", the 34-year-old received 500 francs in cash each time, making a total of 35,000 francs.

He passed on part 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 could take their test with the "tolerant" expert.

Conditional prison sentences

The public prosecutor's office is demanding a conditional prison sentence of twelve months for the two office employees. The examination 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 case 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 test candidates had to hand in their license as a result.

The case came to public attention early last summer because one of the three dismissed candidates appealed to the administrative court against his dismissal, albeit without success. Several candidates have also been convicted so far. They received conditional fines and penalties for bribery.

SDA