A driving ban is the sentence people break most often. They need to get to work, drop off the children, "just pop to the shop". Then comes a traffic stop, and the misdemeanour that earned them the ban turns into a crime. Obstructing the enforcement of an official decision is one of the most frequent items in Czech courtrooms.
What is prosecuted
- Driving during a ban imposed by a court or by an administrative authority. It does not matter if you drove a hundred metres.
- Knowledge of the ban. It is enough that you knew about the decision or were reconciled with it. The Constitutional Court dismissed the complaint of a driver whose decision had been served only on his lawyer and who claimed he did not know about the ban: whoever has a representative bears the risk that the representative tells them nothing.
- Repetition adds up: every drive is a separate act and the courts impose aggregate sentences.
What you are facing
Up to two years in prison. In practice a fine (tens of thousands of crowns) or a suspended sentence and a new driving ban, usually longer than the original; for repeat offenders, even an unsuspended prison sentence. The new ban is not added to the old one, it starts running afresh.
What can be done
Check whether the ban was actually running (finality, service, crediting of the time the licence was held by the police). If it was, act quickly: a confession, cooperation and a diversion lead to a milder outcome than a defence built on "I didn't know", which generally does not hold up.
What this rests on
No advice on this page is an opinion. Each one has a section of the law and a court decision behind it. Click through, the full text is on Europaius.
Statute
- § 337 tr. zákoníkuobstructing the enforcement of an official decision and of an expulsion order: carrying out an activity that was banned, up to two years
- § 73 tr. zákoníkuban on activity for one to ten years
Case law
- I. ÚS 26/25 (Ústavní soud, 24. 7. 2025)the driver claimed not to know about the ban because only his lawyer received the decision; sentenced to 8 months suspended and a 2.5-year ban, complaint dismissed
- I. ÚS 1623/25 (Ústavní soud, 20. 8. 2025)driving on the Prague ring road during a 48-month court-imposed ban; complaint dismissed
- 8 Tdo 51/2023 (Nejvyšší soud, 15. 2. 2023)four drives in a lorry during a ban = four lesser offences of obstructing the enforcement of an official decision
- 7 Tz 98/2022 (Nejvyšší soud, 24. 8. 2022)for obstruction, a fine of 120 daily rates of CZK 350 was imposed, that is CZK 42,000
Related cases
- Řídil v zákazu. Rozhodnutí o zákazu dostal jen jeho advokát. 2025 (in Czech)
A different situation?
- You or someone close to you has been detained
- Pre-trial detention is looming, or someone is already in it
- A police summons has arrived
- Criminal complaint: you want to file one, or one has been filed against you
- You have been charged with a criminal offence
- A penal order has arrived
- Alcohol or drugs behind the wheel, driving ban
- Plea agreement, conditional discontinuation
- House search
- You have become the victim of a crime
- European arrest warrant, extradition abroad
- Charged with embezzlement
- Disorderly conduct: a brawl, a pub, the street
- Dangerous threats and stalking
- Charged with bodily harm
- Damage to property
- Violation of the inviolability of the home
- Defamation
- Conditional release from prison
- Negligent homicide: a fatal accident
- Credit fraud and subsidy fraud