Constitutional Court
7 May 2001
Facts
The case was initiated by a district court, which asked the court to examine whether the provision of the Code of Administrative Offences, according to which a person who has already been punished for an offence can be issued an administrative penalty for the sum of the offences, is not contrary to the Constitution.
Complaint
The Constitution stipulates that no one may be punished for the same offence a second time, and this should also apply to administrative liability.
Court‘s ruling
The Court stated that the relevant provision do not provide for a separate infringement of the Road Traffic Rules but provides for an additional sanction for the last infringement of the rules, when a person commits several infringements provided for in other articles of the Code within a period of a year, for which the sum of points awarded is 10 or more. Scoring of infringements is not an administrative sanction.
A person who commits the last of the offences provided for in the relevant provision shall be liable to the main administrative penalty (fine) in accordance with the relevant article (part of it) of the Code and to an additional administrative penalty in accordance with the relevant provision of the Code. This does not mean that a person is punished a second time for the same offence. The Court found no conflict with the Constitution.