£80,000 speeding fine in Finland :(

mindmyp's_n_q's

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Businessman fined nearly Usd 112,000 for speeding in Western Finland
A motorist was handed an eye-watering £80,000 fine for speeding by police - because he is rich.
Swedish businessman Anders Wiklof was caught doing 77kph in a 50kph zone while driving in Finland.
And the country penalises speeding motorists by fining them based on their wealth, meaning multi-millionaire Wiklof was hit with a hefty free.
Traffic cops gave the fast-moving magnate a speeding ticket following the incident on the island of Aland.
It is thought the fine handed out to Mr Wiklof, 67, is one of the highest ever.
The businessman and philanthropist accepted he was wrong for speeding.
But he said in an interview that the penalty was 'unreasonable'.
He said: 'I'd rather put that money on the elderly, health, day care or whatever.
'I have only myself to blame, but one can question whether it is fair.

speeding+ticket.jpg


reason for edit said:
Finland is not in bloody Scandinavia!
 
Exactly. What deterrent is £100 fine for a multi-millionaire. Let's face it, even an £80k fine isn't going to affect their life in any way like a £100 fine would for a poorer person. As for claiming that he'd rather the money goes to healthcare or the elderly, what does he think the government spends money on?
 
Skashion said:
I prefer speeding points but if you're going to use fines, of course they should be dependent on wealth.

But with some minimum value surely?

We don't have points here but the fines go up with speed from 5kph above the limit the starting value depends on the speed limit so 60kph in a 50 will cost Chf120 (£80) 61kph will cost double that. I don't remember what the maximum is but it comes with a free 6 months in gaol and a ban anywhere from a year to life. It's a reasonable system that appears to work. The other thing is they do not publish speeding camera sites (mobile or fixed) and it illegal to do so so things like TomTom which show camera locations in many countries do not here.
 
Finland is not in bloody Scandinavia!

The Finnish driving test is pretty brutal and the police have no sympathy whatsoever for anyone driving dangerously. Although, if there's one set of drivers that have the ability to drive like a maniac and still be in control then it's the Finns. Always annoys folk here that my UK licence lets me drive minibuses, horseboxes, lorries and trailers even on the sole basis that I drove around Wilmslow for 45 minutes in the rush hour 20 years ago in a 1.2 VW Polo without killing anyone. Whereas they spend months learning, drive around skid pans, pay a fortune and can only drive a car with theirs.

And just noticed the guy's Swedish, excellent - that makes it a good news story.
 
Wasn't this quite a while ago? Their judicial system takes into account your wealth, then equate the fine accordingly. Seems fair in theory.
 
mick10 said:
Wasn't this quite a while ago? Their judicial system takes into account your wealth, then equate the fine accordingly. Seems fair in theory.

You're right, there was a case in 2000 - the owner of Espoo Blues (my local ice hockey team in fact) got fined over 200k. There's been a couple of players of Finnish NHL players being fined when they're back home visiting too I think

http://www2.hs.fi/english/archive/news.asp?id=20000804xx4
 
Never thought I'd defend a rich person but...

I think it's bloody unfair!

The law of the land should apply equally to all and neither favour nor penalise anyone based on wealth or status. Flip it on it's head, if he had got away with it because he is rich and some low paid worker had been hit with a £500 equivalent fine for the same thing, we'd all be up in arms. Why should the law be applied differently?

I think a more appropriate punishment in this case (my opinion, not the answer to crime before you get uppity) would be to force the speedster to spend time in the classroom re the effects of speeding (like they do here in Blighty) but to then follow that up with an appropriate number of hours unpaid community work. That should lay on file and be citable only if there is repeat offence where the penalties would then be harsher/stiffer as appropriate.
 

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