Finnish millionaire cops a $200k speeding fine

A driver has been fined 121,000 euros—almost $200,000 AUD—for speeding in Finland, where penalties are calculated based on the offender’s finances.

Anders Wiklöf was driving more than 30kph over the limit when he was stopped by police and fined for nearly triple the average person’s yearly salary in Finland.

Wiklöf is the chairman of Wiklöf Holding, a diverse holding company which includes businesses in logistics, real estate, trade, tourism and helicopter services.

The company is valued at an estimated $10 million, making Wiklöf’s average disposable income a little more than the average offender.

In addition to the speeding fine, Wiklöf’s license was suspended for 10 days.

“I really regret the matter,” Anders Wiklöf was reported as saying in Nya Åland, the major newspaper in the Åland Islands, where the incident took place.

Åland is an autonomously governed group of islands situated between Turku, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden.

Though it is considered to be a region of Finland, Åland’s autonomous status means that provincial powers normally exercised by the Finnish government are largely controlled by its own government.

It is also politically neutral and entirely demilitarised, with laws exempting all residents from conscription to the Finnish Defence Forces.

The incident has sparked a lot of discussion about the fairness of Finland’s income-based fines.

Paul Murray of Sky News was critical of the large penalty faced by Wiklöf.

“In lefty Finland, they work out speeding fines on your wealth,” said Murray.

However, it’s not the first time Anders Wiklöf has paid a significant fine for his behaviour behind the wheel.

In 2018, he was fined 63,680 euros for a similar offence.

Five years earlier, he paid a speeding fine of 95,000 euros.

It remains to be seen if the hefty price tag will be enough to deter Wiklöf from future speeding offences.