The journey home one night ends up expensive

The Zug High Court has sentenced a juvenile who had resisted the sentence for more than two years.

On 27th May 2018, shortly after 7.15 a.m., three young men were sitting on the second floor of Interregio train 2326. They were returning from a party in Wilen near Wollerau, and, after a sleepless and alcohol-filled night, they boarded the first train from Pfäffikon to Lucerne. When the conductor appeared shortly after Zug, two of the three showed their tickets without any hesitation. The third, however, searched around in his jacket pocket. To the amusement of his colleagues, he fished out expired ticket after expired ticket, but he couldn’t find a valid one. Finally, the then 18-year-old handed the inspector a SwissPass. But there was neither a half-fare nor a general subscription on the card. As the inspector looked at the youngster and compared him to the image that appears on his card reader, he realised that the SwissPass that the youngster had just given him did not belong to him. It was his colleague's card.

"The accused was thereby guilty of the attempted falsification of an ID within the meaning of Article 252 of the StGB (criminal code of Switzerland) " stated the Zug Prosecutor's Office in its indictment of 23^rd October 2019. But because the now 20-year-old appealed against the penalty order, and did not want to accept the conditional fine of 20 daily rates of CHF 30, the Zug Criminal Court heard the case on the 9^th March this year. The individual judge fully accepted the request of the public prosecutor, dismissed the accused’s statements as implausible, and again sentenced him to a conditional fine and a direct fine to CHF 120.

High Court supports the judgment of the Criminal Court
It has now become clear: the High Court of the Canton of Zug supported the decision of the criminal court, which the accused had again challenged. This is clear from a judgment of 29^th October, which was recently published, but is not yet final. Over 26 pages, the three-judges of the High Court rolled out the 20-year-old's case. The final cantonal authority also sentenced the young man to 30 daily rates of a conditional fine of CHF 20 and a  direct fine of CHF 120. The appeal procedure alone cost CHF 2,582, while the cost of the first instance is CHF 3,785. The 20-year-old will now have to pay all this.

The High Court judges were also convinced that the accused wanted to deceive the inspector with his colleague's SwissPass, and to thereby travel without paying by using someone else’s general subscription.

They considered the statements of the accused to be implausible. Both in court and during questioning by the police and the public prosecutor, he claimed that he had shown the inspector the SwissPass of his colleague because the latter was in the toilet. This was contradicted by the statements of the two colleagues and the inspector, however, all of whom had been interviewed several times and who had testified that the colleague was present during the inspection and had not been in the toilet.

From the check in May 2018 to the high court ruling in October 2020, this story has occupied the Zug justice system for more than two and a half years, and the trial alone has cost the accused more than CHF 6,367 francs (not counting the fines). A ticket from Pfäffikon to Lucerne on a Saturday morning costs CHF 13.50!