Imagine being fined for over speeding; now imagine that fine being based on your income. Preposterous, isn’t it? While a lot of countries in the world have a clear fine structure for traffic rule violations, most of Scandinavia determines fines based on income.
Fines in Finland for traffic violations, shoplifting, and violating securities-exchange laws are assessed based on the violator’s earnings. Recently, a Finnish businessman, who earned 6.5 million euros per year, was slapped an exorbitant fine of 54,000 euros for going 65 miles per hour in a 50 zone. The Finnish police consulted a federal taxpayer database to arrive at the fine amount.
In 2002, a Nokia executive was fined the equivalent of $103,000 (roughly 36 lakh rupees) for going 45 in a 30 zone on his motorcycle, and the NHL player Teemu Selanne incurred a $39,000 fine two years earlier, a report in The Atlantic noted.