A driver faces up to $153,000 in fines for speeding on a Swiss street. But he can afford it

A vehicle passes in front of a sign of the Vaud Cantonal Police indicating the number of driving licences withdrawn for speeding in the construction zone on the A1 motorway between Lausanne and Yverdon, Switzerland, Tuesday, June 15, 2010. (Dominic Favre/Keystone via AP)

GENEVA — The driver was clocked going 27 kilometers per hour over the speed limit on a street in the Swiss city of Lausanne, and now he’s facing up to 90,000 Swiss francs (more than C$153,000) in fines as a result. But he can afford it.

Why the eye-popping penalty? Because the speedster, a repeat offender, is one of Switzerland’s wealthiest people, and the Vaud canton, or region, serves up fines based on factors like income, fortune or general family financial situation.

The Swiss are not alone. Germany, France, Austria and the Nordic countries all issue punishments based on a person’s wealth. The recent fine isn’t even a record in Switzerland. In 2010, a millionaire Ferrari driver got a ticket equal to nearly C$400,000 for speeding in the eastern canton of St. Gallen.

Back then, the Swiss safety group Road Cross said rich drivers had been lightly punished until voters approved a penal law overhaul three years earlier that let judges hand down fines based on personal income and wealth for misdemeanors like speeding and drunk driving.

Under today’s rules, an indigent person might spend a night in jail instead of a fine, while the wealthiest in the rich Alpine country could be on the hook for tens of thousands.

A court in the Swiss canton of Vaud recently ruled that the tycoon must pay 10,000 Swiss francs (C$17,000) up front and could be forced to pay the rest — 80,000 Swiss francs more — if he’s caught for a similar roadway infraction over the next three years.

Switzerland’s “24 Heures” newspaper first reported the case and said the man, who was not identified, was a French citizen listed by Swiss economic weekly Bilan among the 300 richest people in Switzerland — with a fortune in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The daily reported that an automated police radar photographed the offender driving at 77 kilometers per hour in a 50 km/h zone on a Lausanne street. A quick-calculating prosecutor tallied the maximum fine the driver faced under the law, the report said.

Vincent Derouand, a spokesperson for the Vaud public prosecutors office, said the defendant didn’t contest the decision, which was handed down in June for the infraction nearly a year ago — in August 2024.

The Vaud criminal code sets a maximum financial penalty based on the “personal and economic situation of the offender at the time of the ruling” — notably taking into account issues like income, fortune, lifestyle and family financial needs.

The newspaper reported that he had already been caught for a similar speeding infraction eight years ago, and also paid 10,000 Swiss francs in penalty and faced another 60,000 if another infraction had taken place within the following two years.

In Switzerland, penalties for speeding can even catch up with the cops: One officer was fined for racing at nearly twice the speed limit through Geneva streets back in 2016 while chasing thieves who had blown up a bank teller machine.

Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press