Anssi Vanjoki on Reddit front page

This story has hit the front page of reddit again. In Reddit’s “today I learned” subreddit, the top story (pushing to the front page) is how Anssi Vanjoki, whilst a Nokia Executive, was hit with a huge speeding ticket. Given that in Finland, fines are tied to the income of the offender when exceeding the limit by a certain amount (as opposed to a blanket approach where it’s all the same) Vanjoki’s fine was 103,600USD. Something he could afford but also something that would be memorable for him to not do it again.

A Finn explains:

Just as an example from Finland: Last year i was caught on speed camera doing 83 km/h on a 60 km/h stretch and got a little bit over 300€ ticket. My yearly income is a bit over 30k. If you exceed the limit for more than 20 km/h the fine will be based on your salary. Under that, the fine varies from 75€ to 115€.

There is a ticket calculator provided by the police:https://www.poliisi.fi/poliisi/lp/home.nsf/pages/F3BCD1C2A09C374FC225759900338B68?opendocument

Looking deeper into the comments, the original fine was supposedly 12.5 million dollars (possibly a mix up, as others claim that was his income in 1999 :/)! However, an appeal by Vanjoki meant the fine was reduced. Not to the 100k in the title, but to 7K.

We were lucky enough to meet Vanjoki at his last Nokia World. Some people reminisce what Nokia could have been like were it to have remained with a Finnish CEO, and Anssi being prime candidate.

The highest priced speeding ticket was actually awarded in 2003.

The most expensive speeding ticket ever given is believed to be the one given to Jussi Salonoja in Helsinki, Finland, in 2003. Salonoja, the 27-year-old heir to a company in the meat-industry, was fined 170,000 euros for driving 80 km/h in a 40 km/h zone.

But Vanjoki and the Nokia connection may have sounded better.

Category: Nokia