IF YOU have been flashed by a speed camera and are waiting to see whether a £60 fine turns up in the post, spare a thought for Jussi Salonoja.

Heir to his family’s sausage fortune and one of Finland’s richest men, the 27-year-old has just been fined a record £116,000 for exceeding the speed limit. Mr Salonoja was caught last Thursday by police travelling 80km per hour (50mph) in a 40kph zone in downtown Helsinki.

The resulting penalty was so large because, unlike Britain’s, Finnish speeding fines reflect the driver’s income. And there is no way you can plead poverty as police have direct access to offenders’ tax records.

Mr Salonoja is certainly in a position to pay his fine. In 2002 his earnings were believed to be somewhere in the region of £4.8 million.

It is not the first time that the wealthy motorist has had a brush with traffic police. Four years ago he was fined a more modest £27,000 for driving 200kph in a 120kph zone.

This time he might be hoping for some leniency when the case goes before the courts. Anssi Vanjoki, a Nokia executive, saw his £79,000 speeding fine reduced by 95 percent in 2002 after his income plummeted following the stock market crash. If, however, Mr Salonoja’s penalty does stand, it will beat a speeding fine of more than £55,000 paid by the internet millionaire, Jaakko Rytsola, in 2000, and the £24,000 fine imposed on the Nokia president, Pekka Ala-Pietila, for running a red light in 2001.

So while some British drivers might hate speed cameras perhaps we should be grateful that we have not adopted the Finnish system — yet.

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