Joe Yates
A Swiss man has been ordered to pay the equivalent of more than $100,000 for driving too close to the car in front while on the highway.
People are divided over whether it is fair to charge a millionaire six figures for a minor driving offence that would cost any US citizen between $100 and $300 - depending on whether they'd offended before.
Now, the Swiss Supreme Court has been forced to respond after coming under fire for fining the businessman from Aargau, a Swiss state bordering Germany.
Advert
Let's paint the picture first. It happened in March last year, while driving along the A1 highway, which runs from Zurich to Lausanne through Aargau, the motorist was tailgating another car on the road when cops spotted the issue.
When the courts worked out how much he would owe, it seems like they threw the book at him, with his sentencing resulting in 50 days worth of fines at the equivalent of $2,190, which worked out at $109,500 in total - although it has been suspended by two years, meaning if he reoffends, he will be forced to fork out the money.
Meaning if he broke parole in anyway, he'll serve the remainder of his time behind bars.
But the costly offense didn't end there, he was also ordered to cover the court costs at which was around $14,500.
So how was it all worked out then?
Well, it was calculated based on his taxable income - which exceeded $1.7 million.
Now, the federal court has footage taken by police which detailed exactly how close he was to the car in front of him - with local news outlets even describing him as being 'stuck to the rear of the vehicle in front of him'.
"This is not an arbitrary decision," the court concluded, regarding the verdict, which the defendant was appealing against.
Taking to Reddit, one person sympathized with the offender. They wrote: "I mean 100k fine for 1.6mil of taxable income would correspond to fining someone making 50k $3,125 which does feel wildly unreasonable for tailgating. that’s not to say the principle of it is wrong though."
While another commented: "When you make $50k that $3100 is significant because you have very little to no financial wiggle room. When you make $1.6M a year you have a lot of fucking wiggle room."
"I mean 100k fine for 1.6mil of taxable income would correspond to fining someone making 50k $3,125 which does feel wildly unreasonable for tailgating. that’s not to say the principle of it is wrong though," added another.