COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A wealthy driver has been fined 121,000 euros ($129,544) for speeding in Finland, where such penalties are calculated on the basis of an offender’s income.
“I really regret the matter,” the main newspaper for the Aaland Islands, an autonomous region of Finland in the Baltic Sea, quoted Anders Wiklöf as saying in an article published Monday.
Wiklöf was driving 82 kilometers per hour (51 miles per hour) in a 50 kilometer per hour (31 miles per hour) zone when police stopped and ticketed him Saturday. Along with getting the fine, he had his driver’s license suspended for 10 days, the Nya Aaland newspaper said.
It wasn’t the first time Wiklöf was caught driving too fast. In 2018, he was fined 63,680 euros ($68,176), and he had to cough up 95,000 euros ($102,000) five years earlier.
A native of Aaland, Wiklöf is chairman of a holding company that includes businesses in the logistics, helicopter services, real estate, trade and tourism sectors.
The archipelago sits at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia, between the Finnish city of Turku, on mainland Finland’s west coast, and Sweden’s capital of Stockholm.
Definitely not new:
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Finland, Home of the $103,000 Speeding Ticket
Most of Scandinavia determines fines based on income. Could such a system work in the U.S.?www.theatlantic.com
"Finland’s system for calculating fines is relatively simple: It starts with an estimate of the amount of spending money a Finn has for one day, and then divides that by two—the resulting number is considered a reasonable amount of spending money to deprive the offender of. Then, based on the severity of the crime, the system has rules for how many days the offender must go without that money. Going about 15 mph over the speed limit gets you a multiplier of 12 days, and going 25 mph over carries a 22-day multiplier.
Most reckless drivers pay between €30 and €50 per day, for a total of about €400 or €500. Finland’s maximum multiplier is 120 days, but there's no ceiling on the fines themselves—the fine is taken as a constant proportion of income whether you make €80,000 a year or €800,000."
Math problem - Elon Musk gets nailed in Finland driving a new Tesla Roadster prototype at 250 mph in a 75 mph zone. What's his fine?
Elon? Whatever his fine is, it's not enough.