The 10 largest speeding fines ever issued

Speeding tickets. We dread them, not only for the demerit points they attract, but also for the fines associated with driving – or riding – over the signposted limit.

Earlier this month, we reported on a Finnish motorist, 76-year-old Anders Wiklöf, who was caught speeding at 82km/h in a 50km/h zone.

His penalty? Try a whopping €121,000 ($AU197,500). In NSW, the same offence would attract a fine of $970 and five demerit points while offenders who choose to take the matter to court can be fined a maximum of $2200 and have their licence suspended for three months. Hefty, for sure, but paling into insignificance when compared with some other jurisdictions around the world.

In Finland, and in much of Scandinavia, fines for various offences are levied according to the offender’s disposable income. In short, the higher your income, the bigger the fine.

For Wiklöf, the founder and CEO of a company with an annual turnover of €350 million ($AU571 million) that meant an eye-watering amount of money will be making its way into the state coffers.

The Finnish system levies sliding-scale penalties for a range of offences – including traffic – under what is known as a “day fine”. Fines are calculated based on the offender’s daily disposable income and then multiplied by a number of days depending on the severity of the offence.

In Wiklöf’s case, his massive income combined with an offence deemed to be worth 14 “day fines” resulted in him being issued with his huge €121,000 fine. It didn’t help his cause that the 76-year-old had previously twice fallen foul of the law in similar circumstances, once in 2013 (€95,000 / $AU155,000) and then again in 2018 when he was fined €63,680 ($AU103,940). Both were for speeding offences.

Despite the massive hit to his bank account, Wiklöf remained pragmatic, telling his local newspaper, the Nya Åland, “I have heard the government wants to save €1.5bn on healthcare in Finland, so I hope that my money can fill a gap there.”

Now, if you’re thinking a fine close to $AU200,000 for going 32km/h over the limit is harsh, spare a thought for one Swedish motorist who in 2010 was booked at over 290km/h in his Mercedes-AMG SLS in Switzerland. Sadly for the offender, Switzerland uses a similar system to Finland when determining penalties.

Unsurprisingly, Swiss authorities took a dim view of the speeding Swede, and levied a fine commensurate with the severity of the offence and the driver’s income. While little is known about the unidentified Swede, he certainly must have enjoyed a huge net worth. His fine? A brain-haemorrhaging CHF1,080,000 (Swiss Francs) or around $AU1.8 million in our currency. Ouch.

Switzerland features heavily in the list of top 10 highest speeding fines ever issued, holding on to the first three places. As well as our Speeding Swede, the second-highest fine ever issued ($AU498,520) belongs to a Ferrari Testarossa driver caught at an undisclosed speed in 2010. Third, in 2018, a driver in Switzerland of an unknown model was clocked at just 88km/h. But while the speed was relatively low, the $AU479,000 fine certainly wasn’t.

Rounding out the top 10, a driver in Belgium clocked at 72km/h was slugged with a $AU339,161 penalty while Finland doled out fines of $324,850 (80km/h), $212,067 (51km/h), $211,976 (81km/h in a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen), and $194,610 (speed and make/model unknown).

Switzerland crops up again inside the top 10, this time with a fine of $180,860 for a Porsche driver clocked at an undisclosed speed while in 10th place, it’s our mates over in Finland again, this time with a $166,467 penalty for a driver clocked at 77km/h.

Finland, it seems isn’t the place to get caught speeding, certainly not if you enjoy a comfortable life with good pay. Fourteen of the 20 highest speeding fines ever dished out have been in Finland, while Switzerland accounts for another four, Belgium one and the United Kingdom one when in 2020, a Range Rover Sport driver was whacked with an $83,086 fine after being clocked at 98km/h.

Makes our relatively low $970 impost for similar offences a touch more palatable when put into that context.

So what do you think? Should speeding fines be proportionate to the disposable income of the offender? Let us know in the comments below.