Finnish Millionaire Fined 111,888 Euros for Speeding

How would it be like to pay speeding tickets according to your revenue per day? Those who earn less would pay cheaper fines, while millionaires would have to pay big bucks for their mistakes.

As a matter of fact, such system exists in Finland already and it makes victims among speedy millionaires. According to Global Motors, Finnish millionaire Jari Bär, the former owner of the Iisalmi’s company Finnritilä  has to pay a speeding fine of 111,888 euros (about 141,661 dollars). The millionaire motorist drove 82 km/h (51 mph) in a 60 km/h (37 mph) area in January, in Siilijärvi, Finland.

However, the icing on the cake is that if Bär had been driving 80 km/h, he would have had to pay only a 115 euros ticket. Obviously, you might ask yourself: is the huge difference between the two amounts due to only 2 km extra? Well, it seems so.

In Finland, those drivers who exceed the speed limit by 20 km/h receive a standard fine. What's above 20 km/h is charged according to the person's daily income.

Thus, Bär had to pay his 12-day revenue for the extra 2 km. If his income had been 100 euros per day, then he would have had to pay only 1,200 euros.  But since Bär's income had been much bigger, the speeding fine rose to 111,888 euros.

Apparently, Bär was "unlucky" enough to have earned a lot of money last year as he sold a majority stake in his company last year. Therefore, his daily revenue was ranked at 9,300 euros, this justifying the huge speeding ticket.

In Finland, there is no level of maximum fines and each motorist pays according to his/her revenue and we have to say, this is not at all insignificant during the global recession's days.