Friday, April 16, 2010

Pardon Me If I've Posted This Before...

In Finland, speeding tickets are a bit unusual--the punishment fits the crime.  When you get a ticket there, the fine is based on how fast you were going AND your net income.  So, the $100 fine for someone like us becomes $1000 for the wealthier person--and so on.  This is to make sure everyone suffers equally.  According to mental_floss, here are 5 VERY expensive speeding tickets:

1)  The Crime: In 2002, Anssi Vanjoki, a big-wig at Nokia, was caught on his Harley in Helsinki doing 47mph in a 31mph zone.
The Fine: 116,000 euros, or $103,600

2)  The Crime: Jaako Rytsola, a 27-year-old Finnish Internet entrepreneur and newspaper columnist, was nabbed speeding in his BMW, going 43mph in a 25mph zone.
The Fine: $71,400

3)  The Crime: In 1999, Keijo Kopra, a managing director at a wood-products company, who had recently started to bank a lot more coin, was driving home for work, cruising about 14mph over the speed limit.
The Fine: An officer wrote him a ticket for $14,500. BUT, Kopra challenged the fine in court and the judge lowered it to $9,000. However, when the police mentioned that Mr. Kopra had received two previous speeding tickets in 1999, and that, based on the income he had claimed at the time, each fine was $750, the judge flipped out and imposed additional fines of $38,000 based on Kopra’s new income.

4)  The Crime: Good old Jaako Rytsola again, this time caught zigzagging in downtown Helsinki, in the same BMW, a couple months after his big $71,400 ticket.
The Fine: $44,100 (so that’s $115,500 in one year!)

5)  The Crime: In 2004, the heir to a family sausage empire, Jussi Salonoja, was busted in Helsinki for driving 50mph in a 25mph zone.
The Fine: 170,000 euros, or about $204,000! (And that, my friends, is the present record.)

I wonder how well this works?  Among the celebrities we have in the US--and the fact they ALL think their shit don't stink--I don't think these fines could be imposed.  Besides, there are FAR too many lawyers here in the States and they would tie up the courts for YEARS with each of these.  A good idea that I think is totally unworkable in the US--but it would be nice to see implemented.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:08 AM

    Yeah, it would be nice to see celebrities caught driving drunk, for instance, pay some of their astronomical salaries. I bet California's deficit would be eliminated in record time!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A nice way to offset raising taxes, for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:32 AM

    still, it's nice to see the ultra-rich get stuck where it hurts. To a millionaire, a $250 fine is pocket change. Maybe being fined in proportion to your income gives them something to think about next time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You would think that ANYONE, no matter HOW much money you have, would think about having to pay too many $204,000 fines.

    ReplyDelete

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