A single ticket from the Berlin public transport company (symbolic photo) Photo: DPA
By Anne Losensky
Because his ticket had expired two minutes ago, a Spandauer took on BVG checkpoints. Result: Trial for predatory extortion! He gets away with another black eye. But that now costs him 600 euros, ten times the usual fine of 60 euros!
Tiergarten District Court. Accused: Yavuz B. (39). Skilled worker for electrical engineering, lives on citizen’s money (780 euros), lives with his parents.
On January 12, 2023, he took the tram to Alexanderplatz (Mitte). Shortly before the destination you run into a ticket checkpoint. His ticket was valid for 120 minutes, but expired two minutes ago. “I thought the inspectors could have been accommodating,” he says, “but they didn’t let anyone talk to them at all.”
He gets out at Mollstrasse/Prenzlauer Allee with the inspectors. One word gives another. Heated tussle. Police arrive. An inspector (38) remembers that the unruly passenger was beside himself: “He really scared me. He tried to incite others. Threatened Allah and violence.”
The electrical engineer only claims to have bragged about his “many years of martial arts experience”. With a lot of good will, he managed to avoid a conviction: 600 euros to the children’s hospice plus anti-aggression training, then the proceedings were discontinued.
Defender Ehssan Khazaeli: “A slip. He is insightful and has vowed to improve.”