It almost looked as if the district judge was about to pull the red card and impose a driving ban on Lothar Matthäus. The former national player was caught again for a traffic offense. But his lawyer Michael Brand saved the former kicker from being offside with a legal trick. At least for now.
Of course the press was gathered in front of room A 30, and of course Lothar Matthäus did not appear in person at the court hearing. As his lawyer explained, his client wanted to take his son to school by car that May morning. There was the usual traffic chaos on Queen Street and Ungerer Street. And after turning right from Ungererstrasse onto Leopoldstrasse, Mr. Matthäus overlooked a 30 km/h speed limit sign. One quick step on the accelerator and traffic control at Karl-Theodor-Straße flashed his SUV with 54 items.
Minus the tolerance, Matthäus was traveling 21 kilometers per hour too fast. That’s 115 euros and one point in Flensburg. A football commentator should actually be able to pay the money from petty cash. But Matthäus lodged an objection against the fine. However, it wasn’t about the money.
Persistent driving ban is the name given to the word monster that is imposed on drivers who often attract attention in traffic. And Lothar Matthäus has been no stranger to the Munich police since he returned to Germany.
There have been five entries in the fitness to drive register since 2019, as the judge stated. Among other things, exceeding the speed limit resulted in a driving ban, having a mobile phone in my ear twice, and most recently going too fast and using a mobile phone, which resulted in another driving ban. There are a total of six points in the Flensburg traffic offender register under the name Matthäus. With eight points the problem would be gone, but that’s not the point this time.
There’s no getting around the persistent driving ban, says the judge, “that’s the classic case.” Lawyer Brand, on the other hand, calls out “a special situation”. On Ungererstrasse, Mr. Matthäus missed the 30 km/h speed limit sign because a truck was driving ahead. He has “not yet internalized” this new regulation with the speed reduction.
“It wasn’t intentional,” says the lawyer. He sees the speeding violation as being “at the lower level of reproachability.” The fine, says Michael Brand, may be increased, “doubled or tripled.” But the driving ban…
“The signage was very clear,” counters the judge. She definitely won’t let the matter drop. “If you can wrap the public prosecutor’s office around your finger,” says the judge, alluding to the legal twist of limiting the objection to the legal consequences. This means that now it’s all about the sentence and Michael Brand can still try to save Lothar’s rag with a written justification.