You think speeding in UK is bad......
Discussion
If you guys think getting caught speeding in the UK is bad you should pay a visit to Scandinavia and especially to Finland.
Just got back from a trip where I got caught for speeding.
Was caught at 138kmh on a 100kmh limit motorway at 3am in a rental car rushing to catch a flight from Helsinki. In Finland the amount of fine is directly proportional to your earnings and the police have direct access to the tax authority records so you can't even lie about your earnings. Luckily although I'm Finnish by birth I have a UK licence and no declared earnings in the country.
The cops were actually quite nice and very polite about the whole thing. They reduced the penalty as it was a straight dry road, no other traffic, etc. All the while this was going on I was panicking trying to do a mental calculation as to how much I should declare for my earnings. In the end I thought I'd chance it and lied through my teeth about everything hoping they couldn't check anything.
Said I was an engineer on £45k a year (total lie), had a wife that doesn't work (total lie) and two kdis under the age of 18 (total lie).
The result: A penalty of 867 Euros...!!!
Might sound bad but I used their calculation method (actually very simple) to calculate what the fine had been if I'd declared my real earnings and it ran into several thousand Euros..
Did once hear of some really rich foreigner declaring his real earnings and getting a 100k Euro fine... If ever in Finland, be careful!!
Cheers - Erik
Just got back from a trip where I got caught for speeding.
Was caught at 138kmh on a 100kmh limit motorway at 3am in a rental car rushing to catch a flight from Helsinki. In Finland the amount of fine is directly proportional to your earnings and the police have direct access to the tax authority records so you can't even lie about your earnings. Luckily although I'm Finnish by birth I have a UK licence and no declared earnings in the country.
The cops were actually quite nice and very polite about the whole thing. They reduced the penalty as it was a straight dry road, no other traffic, etc. All the while this was going on I was panicking trying to do a mental calculation as to how much I should declare for my earnings. In the end I thought I'd chance it and lied through my teeth about everything hoping they couldn't check anything.
Said I was an engineer on £45k a year (total lie), had a wife that doesn't work (total lie) and two kdis under the age of 18 (total lie).
The result: A penalty of 867 Euros...!!!
Might sound bad but I used their calculation method (actually very simple) to calculate what the fine had been if I'd declared my real earnings and it ran into several thousand Euros..
Did once hear of some really rich foreigner declaring his real earnings and getting a 100k Euro fine... If ever in Finland, be careful!!
Cheers - Erik
PorkScratching said:
If you guys think getting caught speeding in the UK is bad you should pay a visit to Scandinavia and especially to Finland.
Just got back from a trip where I got caught for speeding.
Was caught at 138kmh on a 100kmh limit motorway at 3am in a rental car rushing to catch a flight from Helsinki. In Finland the amount of fine is directly proportional to your earnings and the police have direct access to the tax authority records so you can't even lie about your earnings. Luckily although I'm Finnish by birth I have a UK licence and no declared earnings in the country.
The cops were actually quite nice and very polite about the whole thing. They reduced the penalty as it was a straight dry road, no other traffic, etc. All the while this was going on I was panicking trying to do a mental calculation as to how much I should declare for my earnings. In the end I thought I'd chance it and lied through my teeth about everything hoping they couldn't check anything.
Said I was an engineer on £45k a year (total lie), had a wife that doesn't work (total lie) and two kdis under the age of 18 (total lie).
The result: A penalty of 867 Euros...!!!
Might sound bad but I used their calculation method (actually very simple) to calculate what the fine had been if I'd declared my real earnings and it ran into several thousand Euros..
Did once hear of some really rich foreigner declaring his real earnings and getting a 100k Euro fine... If ever in Finland, be careful!!
Cheers - Erik
Just got back from a trip where I got caught for speeding.
Was caught at 138kmh on a 100kmh limit motorway at 3am in a rental car rushing to catch a flight from Helsinki. In Finland the amount of fine is directly proportional to your earnings and the police have direct access to the tax authority records so you can't even lie about your earnings. Luckily although I'm Finnish by birth I have a UK licence and no declared earnings in the country.
The cops were actually quite nice and very polite about the whole thing. They reduced the penalty as it was a straight dry road, no other traffic, etc. All the while this was going on I was panicking trying to do a mental calculation as to how much I should declare for my earnings. In the end I thought I'd chance it and lied through my teeth about everything hoping they couldn't check anything.
Said I was an engineer on £45k a year (total lie), had a wife that doesn't work (total lie) and two kdis under the age of 18 (total lie).
The result: A penalty of 867 Euros...!!!
Might sound bad but I used their calculation method (actually very simple) to calculate what the fine had been if I'd declared my real earnings and it ran into several thousand Euros..
Did once hear of some really rich foreigner declaring his real earnings and getting a 100k Euro fine... If ever in Finland, be careful!!
Cheers - Erik
In Switzerland doing jail time can (apparently) be achieved reasonably easily...
Fort Jefferson said:
havoc said:
WTF?
In other words, they're even MORE blatent about it being a tax!
In other words, they're even MORE blatent about it being a tax!
Not really, they just need you to "feel" the fine. Otherwise, rich people would be able to speed as much as they like.
Yes, but €867 (£550+) for someone earning pretty average wages with significant outgoings/dependents. That's pretty damn heavy!
cazzer said:
I got a £300 fine a £70 costs in 1989 (roughly) for 70 in a 60, during the Uk experiment with means tested fines.
I think I earned about 13k at the time.
Thank god for £60 fixed penalties eh? (never thought I'd ever say that)
I think I earned about 13k at the time.
Thank god for £60 fixed penalties eh? (never thought I'd ever say that)
Jesus, that's a bit harsh.
Another thing that gets me is the complete inconsistency in the convictions.
I got 55 days bans, £400 fine AND 6 points for doing 106 in a 70.
Others that do the same thing get 6 points, or a 28 day ban, rarely both.
I'm not saying I'm hard done by or that I didn't deserve it, but shouldn't there be a standard penalty that everyone gets in terms of points and ban length and make the fine means tested? Seems to be not quite fair mainly because no matter how well off we all are, we only get 12 points each to play with.
J500ANT said:
Wasnt the aforementioned businessman the top guy at Nokia?
He did get done quite badly as well but there have been worse cases of foreign people innocently declaring their earnings and then being stung for tens of thousands.
Have to admit that as a deterrent it bloody works... Drove 99kmh for the whole rest of the journey...!!
cooperman said:
It sounds as though the target is something like a week's salary as a fine.
Close. The system is very simple. Based on the amount that you were caught speeding, this is translated into number of days according to a fixed formula. They then simply multiply this figure by your after tax earnings. Simple and no arguments.
My father once got done badly and had to pay 18 days. Post tax that's a helluva loss in one year simply on a speeding ticket.
J500ANT said:
Wasnt the aforementioned businessman the top guy at Nokia?
Yes - and was fined $100K. THe highest fine was that of Jussi Salonoja also of Finland who got fined €170K for doing 50 in a 25 based on a salary of around £7M.
The highest speed was Samual Tilley in Minnesota Sept 2004 who was being tracked for a routine speed measurement from the air when he decided that would be a good moment to Vmax his Honda RC51 - speed was clocked at 205mph. Highest for a car is 182mph in a lambo - again in the US.
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