There's been chatter by the SPD/Green/FDP coalition government over a paragraph in German law: Section 265a (Obtaining benefits by deception)
It says: "Whoever obtains the output of a machine or the services of a telecommunications network which serves public purposes or uses a means of transportation or obtains entrance to an event or facility by deception with the intention of not paying the fee therefor incurs a penalty of imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or a fine, unless the offence is subject to a more severe penalty under other provisions."
What it relates to? Well....fare-dodging (riding a bus, train, or subway without a valid ticket).
So, the government guys are chatting about this idea of decriminalizing the act.
The current position on fare-dodging? It's a 60-Euro fine.
The only way to get the prison or jail-time? Generally, you'd have to be a serious repeater on this (not just three or four times in a single year). You'd be the guy who gets caught sixteen times in a single month, and the judge finally gives you the big hint....one more time and you go to a regional jail/prison for a couple of weeks. Then you just grin....getting caught five days later without a ticket.
How many people out of a thousand caught on fare-dodging....get jail-time? No one really reports this number, which I find odd that it comes up as a serious national topic on decriminalizing.
If you did decriminalize it? Basically....you'd say that the 60-Euro fine would the normal punishment, with no jail-time ever occurring.
If you didn't pay the 60-Euro fine? Well....the judge business would kick back in and involve them in taking some personal property to make up for the fine.
From my various periods (late 70s, mid-80s, early 90s)....audits on subways and trains were just awful rare. Somewhere in the 1990s.....if you rode around Frankfurt, or Berlin.....you started to notice more audit people....checking for tickets. In the past ten years? If you ride around the Frankfurt/Mainz/Wiesbaden area, I'd say that around 10-percent of the trips now involve an audit. On buses in the Wiesbaden area? In the mid-day period, I'd say one out of every eight bus trips will involve an audit.
It's fairly routine on buses....with maybe fifty to sixty passengers....to have a least one or two folks with no tickets. I've noted teenage school kids who pocketed the money that dad gave them for the monthly-ticket.....taking the risk, and getting caught on a fare-dodging situation.
As for decriminalizing the business? I'd go and have the guy/gal pay the fine (60 Euro) and just insert a little rule on the tenth violation in one year....you get a 300 Euro fine.
The jail business? It makes no sense for Huns to show up for three months of jail/prison, and on day two....the other prisoners ask him what he did to get time....thinking he assaulted someone or robbed a store, and instead....Huns says he just didn't buy a 2.50 Euro train ticket on a Friday.
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