Evidence is enough for punishment: without a driver's license at the wheel?

Driving a car without a license can be punished - everyone should be aware of that.

Evidence is enough for punishment: without a driver's license at the wheel?

Driving a car without a license can be punished - everyone should be aware of that. A verdict shows that this is also possible if you were not caught in the act.

Anyone who drives a car without a valid driver's license must reckon with punishment. You don't have to have been caught driving. Significant suspicion and corresponding statements during the on-site interrogation may be sufficient.

This is shown by a judgment by the district court in Munich (Az.: 922 Ds 436 Js 178055/21), about which the working group on traffic law of the German Lawyers' Association (DAV) reports.

The case involved a man who slept in the driver's seat of a car in a freeway parking lot in the summer of 2021. When the police check him, it turns out that he lost his driver's license in 2016 because of drug use.

When the police addressed this, the man replies: "I came from Lake Imsee because I dropped off a friend there. I took a break here in the parking lot." In addition, he had not received a letter that he had to give up his driver's license. The man signed the statement. In the court hearing, he then not only gave no more information, but denied the allegations.

That was unsuccessful. On the one hand, the notice of withdrawal of the driver's license and the acknowledgment of receipt were read out during the oral hearing. The defendant was found sleeping in the driver's seat. Even during the check, which lasted half an hour, no one else came who could have been a driver. The court saw in this alone a considerable suspicion of a crime.

In addition, there are the statements that the accused made on the spot during the interrogation. The evaluated the court as a conceding driving. "If he didn't want to express that, why should he have said that he hadn't received a letter that he had to give up his driver's license?" the DAV working group quoted the court as saying.

The man was sentenced to a fine of 110 daily rates of 60 euros each for intentionally driving without a license.

(This article was first published on Saturday, August 20, 2022.)