Facts
The appellant [A.] was convicted by the single judge of the District Court of Zurich for multiple cases of procuring a false certification, violation of the Social Assistance Act of the Canton of Zurich, and trespassing, and sentenced to a conditional prison term of 7 months. On appeal by the Public Prosecutor's Office Winterthur/Unterland, the Cantonal Court of Zurich found the appellant guilty of unlawfully claiming social assistance benefits and sentenced him to a conditional prison term of 8 ½ months. The appellant requests that he be punished with a total fine of 300 daily penalty units.
The lower court applied the old sanction law as the milder law for the offenses committed before January 1, 2018, and the new law for the trespassing committed in 2018. The appellant complains that the lower court did not conduct a concrete individual sentencing assessment in the context of total sentencing and determined the type of sentence without concrete reasoning.
Considerations
The Federal Court examines whether the lower court violated federal law in sentencing. The lower court determined the type of sentence for all offenses without first evaluating the individual acts. This is methodically incorrect and violates federal law. The lower court also failed to explain how the requirements of aArt. 40 and aArt. 41 SCC are met to impose prison sentences of less than six months.
The Federal Court notes that the lower court will have to impose an additional sentence to the judgment of the District Court of Dietikon of December 5, 2018, when imposing a fine pursuant to Art. 49 para. 2 SCC. The matter is to be remanded to the lower court for a new assessment…