A new report by Blick has found that only a fraction of speeding fines issued in Geneva last year to drivers registered overseas have actually been paid. Swiss police blamed a lack of cooperation between international police forces for the high deviancy rate.

Over 10.000 driving fines issued in Geneva to non-Swiss cars

According to Blick, in 2021, over 10.000 driving fines were issued in Geneva to drivers who had vehicles registered outside Switzerland and neighbouring countries. Of the fines issued, only 3,3 percent (around 330 fines) were actually paid. 

The issue is not an uncommon occurrence in other Swiss cantons too, with authorities from Nidwalden telling the Luzerner Zeitung that 70 percent of fines issued in the canton to cars registered overseas remain unpaid.

Swiss police struggle to issue fines overseas

According to the head of the Nidwalden traffic police, Marco Niederberger, if a non-Swiss car is caught speeding in Switzerland, the emergency services work with their counterparts in the country where the vehicle is registered. While this “works well with Germany, Austria or Lichtenstein,” he explained that the further away the country is from Switzerland, the harder it is to successfully issue the fine.

Speaking to Blick, police in Canton Bern said that while it cannot give recent data, "On a long-term average, around 58 percent of the fines were paid in connection to vehicles with foreign license plates." The newspaper also calculated that only 55 percent of fines issued to non-Swiss cars in Canton Zurich were paid.

Swiss police call for more cooperation in issuing fines

“The lack of data exchange with some countries prevents criminal prosecution and leads to non-payment of the fines. We are absolutely dependent on the owner and driver data from other countries, so that accused persons can be subjected to criminal prosecution,” noted spokesperson for Schaffhausen police, Katarina Carnevale. 

To solve the problem, Carnevale told Blick that authorities need to issue fines more directly, as in the police’s experience, “If the accused receive a penalty order from the public prosecutor's office... the fines that have not been paid are often paid as soon as possible.” “ There are very few who do not react to a criminal order from the public prosecutor's office," she concluded.