79-year-old Anders Wiklöf is one of Finland’s most prominent businessmen. As the founder of Wiklöf Holding AB, a company generating over 350 million euros per year, he is also one of the wealthiest people in the northern European country. But Mr. Wiklöf is also a somewhat inattentive driver, which sometimes ends up costing him a small fortune.
Last week, Wiklöf was caught doing 59 km/h (37 mph) in a 30 km/h (19 mph) zone while driving his sports car in the Åland Islands archipelago, in the Baltic Sea. In Finland, exceeding speed limits by over 20 km/h is considered a serious offence and is punished accordingly. Worse still, fines are linked to the offender’s income.
In Anders Wiklöf’s case, the speeding ticket was set at 120,000 euros ($138,600). The Finnish businessman could have disputed the facts, appealed the fine in court, or simply complained about the astronomical sum, but he declared himself lucky to still have a license, considering that drivers doing 30 km over the speed limit have their license suspended.
Photo: Unsplash
“If I made a mistake, I made it, I accept it, and there’s nothing more to say,” Wiklöf told Finnish newspaper Nya Åland.
Interestingly, this isn’t Anders Wiklöf first expensive mistake. In 2023, he made national news headlines after getting a similar fine, and he himself admits that he spent almost 400,000 euros ($460,000) on speeding tickets in the last 13 years.
But Wiklöf’s exploits pale in comparison to the highest speeding ticket ever recorded. In 2010, a Swedish motorist was fined around $1 million after being caught doing 290 km/h (180 mph) in a 120 km/h zone in Switzerland. The fine was also determined by his income and his net worth.
