If you’re here, then you were probably pulled in by that shocking headline. Yes, a speeding driver in Finland was just hit with a fine of PHP 7.28 million. Here’s how that came to be.

To be exact about the amount, it’s 121,000 Euros which roughly converts to the stated Philippine Peso amount above. It came to that amount due to Finland’s unusual but progressive policies regarding not only speeding but laws in general. Fines are determined by how much money you make, to ensure that it will always hurt – even if you’re a millionaire. This should deter even the rich and famous from speeding along thoroughfares and causing accidents. Some have seen this as unfair, but it doesn’t seem like the country has any plans of standardizing the fines for everyone.

Now about the case itself. You may think that the driver, Anders Wiklöf, must have been going 200 km/h in a school zone to warrant that kind of punishment. But nope, he was merely caught doing 82 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, which many of us have probably done in the past on empty roads. After all, the enforcement of laws in countries such as ours are way more lax, compared to Finland.

It’s not just the fine he had to pay. His license was also suspended for ten days, to add insult to injury. That’s way more than just a slap on the wrist and would probably discourage any motorist from going even 1 km/h above the designated limit. Although this isn’t the first time he’s gotten caught and fined speeding: He had to pay 63,680 euros (PHP 3.8M) in 2018 and 95,000 euros (PHP 5.7M) in 2013. So that brings his grand total to around 279,680 Euros (PHP 16.8M) in speeding tickets alone. We don’t know if this man just doesn’t care about his money (he owns a company valued at more than PHP 500M) or there’s a particular reason why he loves the speed.

While we don’t condone driving dangerously, his “donations” will surely become a contributor to government and public projects.

All Mr. Anders Wiklöf had to say about the speeding fine to a local newspaper was: “I really regret the matter.” Whether that statement is true or not remains to be confirmed.

Do you think this is the right thing to do? Let us know in the comments!