Facts
The appellant, X., was found guilty of the offense of falsifying official value stamps (art. 245 SCC) for having falsified a 2013 road vignette and used it when crossing the French-Swiss border of Saint-Gingolph on August 23, 2013. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (FPC) sentenced the individual to a pecuniary penalty of ten daily penalty units at 30 fr., with a suspended sentence for two years, as well as a fine of 200 francs.
The appellant lodged an objection to the penal order and the FPC opened a criminal investigation for infringement of art. 245 SCC. The FPC issued a new penal order against X. for the same reasons and imposed a pecuniary penalty of ten daily penalty units at 100 fr., with a suspended sentence for two years, as well as a fine of 200 francs.
The Criminal Court of the Federal Criminal Court found X. guilty of the offense of falsifying official value stamps within the meaning of art. 245 SCC and sentenced him to a pecuniary penalty of ten daily penalty units at 100 fr., while granting him a suspended sentence with a probation period of two years and waiving the imposition of an additional fine.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined the competence of Swiss authorities in matters of falsification of official value stamps. According to art. 8 SCC, a crime or offense is deemed to have been committed both at the place where the author acted or should have acted and at the place where the result occurred.
The Federal Court considered that the appellant had acted in Switzerland when he falsified the vignette abroad, but that he had intended to use it on a Swiss toll road. The use of the vignette in Switzerland as intact constitutes a direct consequence of its…