“Traffic light” case

18.01.20 driver “N”, a TV presenter of one of the Federal channels, was stopped by a traffic police officer for driving on a prohibited traffic light signal on Teatralny proezd in Moscow.

Check on the database of the traffic police showed that this violation is repeated. Against driver N., an administrative offense report was drawn up in accordance with Part 3 of Article 12.12 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for a penalty of deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 4-6 months or a fine of 5,000 rubles.

Taking into account the significant number of traffic violations registered for the driver N (about 80 for the last year), the commander of the traffic police unit, who sent the case materials to the court, insisted on depriving the driver of the right to drive vehicles.

When reading the case materials, the lawyer noticed that the previous violation of the rules of journey of a traffic light was recorded 26.10.19 by automatic fixation of administrative offenses, and, accordingly, driver N was brought to administrative responsibility as the owner of the vehicle. When communicating with driver N., it turned out that other persons were allowed to drive this vehicle for OSAGO policy, and on the day of the violation, the “De Jure” client was outside the territory of the Russian Federation.  This circumstance was confirmed by the marks of the Border Service of the Russian Federation on entry and exit in the passport.

When considering a case in a magistrate’s court (370 judicial precinct), the defense filed a request for retraining of the driver’s actions in part 1 of Article 12.12 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for non-alternative punishment in the form of an administrative fine of 1000 rubles.

The justice of the peace did not share the defense position regarding the re-qualification of the offense, nevertheless, taking into account other arguments of the lawyer, he sentenced the driver to an administrative fine in the amount of 5,000 rubles.