The route that the 49-year-old drove his truck through the northern district of Ebersberg was not particularly long. Long enough, however, to earn him a hefty fine. Because the man, who originally comes from the district of Dachau and now lives abroad, was traveling without a driver’s license and was caught by the police on his jaunt. He now asserted in court that it was a mistake – but that did not protect him from punishment, on the contrary: because he has already been convicted several times, the sanction is quite hefty.
The accused has not had a driver’s license since June 2021, which was revoked after drunk driving. Nevertheless, the 49-year-old, who works a few days a month in Germany, got behind the wheel of his truck in mid-January this year. However, he should have known at the time that this was against the law, according to the prosecutor, who therefore accused the man of intent.
His client miscalculated by a month, says the defense attorney
However, the accused defended himself – or his defense attorney, because he himself was silent on the allegations. Yes, his client basically admits the matter and deeply regrets it, but he did not act out of bad faith. “It wasn’t out of defiance, it was a fallacy on his part,” said the defender. His client had simply miscalculated by a month and thought he was already allowed to drive again. However, judge Vera Hörauf countered that the driver’s license had not been blocked, but had been completely revoked and the accused therefore cannot easily get it back.
To make matters worse, the driver’s license from the defendant’s new home country was apparently never presented to a traffic authority, despite a court order. Although the man now claimed in the hearing that he had already sent it some time ago, the judge did not really want to believe him. “I have the impression that that might not be entirely true,” says Hörauf. In any case, that was of little relevance to the current procedure. However, the fact that the 49-year-old had several previous convictions – including arson, assault, forgery and drug trafficking – weighed significantly more heavily.
The public prosecutor also blamed him for this in his plea, mainly because the most recent conviction – drunk driving – was also a traffic offence. He therefore demanded a fine of 3,500 euros, while the defender wanted to reduce the sum to 2,700 euros. Judge Hörauf finally chose the middle ground and sentenced the man to pay 3,000 euros. She could not really believe the claim that the accused had miscalculated the duration of the driver’s license suspension, said the chairwoman, who combined her verdict with an urgent warning to the accused: In view of the many warnings, one is almost in the area of a prison sentence . So the man can’t afford to make another “miscalculation”.