Been fined for speeding lately? It could be worse!

conradmum

In Finland, your fine is based on your net income, and it could amount to thousands!

http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/public/wsj_finland.html

Idiophreak

this is a pretty good idea...would maybe get the Paris Hiltons of the world off the roads.

peter999

conradmum wrote: »

In Finland, your fine is based on your net income, and it could amount to thousands!

http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/public/wsj_finland.html

Amazing !!

"And so, in October 1999, the Finnish government made some major changes, including basing fines on net income. But the biggest change was this: Using cellular phones, the police can now tap into official tax records, which in Finland are open to the public, and learn within seconds a driver's reported income and the corresponding traffic fine.

Keijo Kopra, managing director of Vierumaen Teollisuus Oy, a wood-products company, experienced this firsthand in November 1999. On his way home from work, Mr. Kopra was pulled over for driving 14 miles an hour over the speed limit. Using the new system, the officer wrote him a ticket for $14,500.

Enraged, the executive challenged the amount in court, and a judge lowered it to $9,000. But then the police mentioned that Mr. Kopra had received two previous speeding tickets in 1999 before the new system went into effect. Based on the income he had claimed at the time, each fine was $750. The judge, outraged, imposed additional fines of $38,000"

peter999

Stephen_Leak

And have you seen the roads in Finland? Out of the towns/cities, their main roads are forest tracks. What with that and the climate, they have a real problem with road safety. Having said that, its no wonder they produce so many world class rally drivers.

pompeyrich

We used to have that system, some complicated calculation based on offence x disposable income. It was headline news as people were being fined £1,200 for dropping litter, speeding and stuff. The reason the fines were so high was because the offender didn't fill in the form declaring their disposable income so the Magistrates assumed they had the maximum and fined them accordingly. This would then be reported as Mr X fined £1,200 for ....... whatever petty offence but if Mr X had complied the fine would have been more realistic, as per the report here Income based fines