Man Fined $109,000 After Drunk Driving Arrest
Posted on:5/14/2009
Written By: Chris Robideaux
Website: http://www.kickdui.com/
| A Norwegian millionaire has been fined £71,000 (700,000 kroner, $109,000) and banned from the road after he was caught drink-driving.
The 49-year-old man admitted the charge after he was stopped near an airport in southern Kristiansand, Norway, last October.
Tests showed he had a blood alcohol content of .188, far over the country's maximum of .02%.
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A millionaire has been fined $109,000, (700,000 kroner) and banned from the road after he was caught drunk-driving.
The 49-year-old man admitted the charge after he was stopped near an airport in southern Kristiansand, Norway, last October.
Tests showed he had a blood alcohol content of .188, far over the country's maximum of .02%.
Norwegian courts set drunken driving fines based on income and personal wealth. The unnamed driver earned £76,000 a year and had assets worth $36.6 million.
He was also given an 18-day jail sentence, suspended pending his taking a course on the dangers of driving while intoxicated, and banned from driving for two years. Traditionally in Norway, a drunk driver is jailed for three weeks with hard labor and lose their license for a year. If they do it again, they lose their license forever. The man pleaded guilty in court on Tuesday.
The man is the heir of a rich shipping family. He was also ordered to take part in an alcohol rehabilitation program — failing which he will have to serve 18 days in jail — and he had his driver's license suspended for 27 months.
The man was arrested in October 2008 after he was found to have more than nine times the permitted blood-alcohol level an hour after he was stopped by police. The man told the court that he had only driven 300 to 400m, and that, aware of his condition, he was going to meet friends to ask them to take him home.