Six-figure speeding ticket tests Finland’s egalitarian instincts

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Posted: 4/15/02

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) -- Looking at Anssi Vanjoki's speeding ticket, many Finns are wondering whether their egalitarian spirit has taken them over the edge.

True, Vanjoki was doing 46.5 mph in a 30-mph zone. But $103,000?

The reason the penalty was so harsh is that traffic fines in Finland are based not just on the severity of the offense, but on the offender's income. Vanjoki is a senior executive of Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker, and his fine was assessed on a 1999 income of $5.2 million.

A court later slashed it to $5,245, but not before Finns flew into a rage.

"There is something rotten in our fining system and it needs changing," says Leena Harkimo, one of 70 lawmakers in the 200-member Parliament who want the law amended. "People are equal before the law whatever their color, age, or sex, and so they should be when it comes to wealth."

The Iltalehti tabloid moaned that Finland had "reaped questionable fame abroad with the world's highest speeding fine."

European countries tend to have high-tax systems with lavish welfare services, and Finland with its 5 million people is no exception.

Fines linked to income for various offenses are not a purely Finnish thing either.

Neighboring Sweden and Denmark do it, and so does Germany. But they set a ceiling -- $98 in Sweden, for example -- whereas Finland knows no limits. And Finland is thought to be the only country that applies the system to traffic offenses.