Would you ever fight a court battle over a noise ordinance for four years? That’s what this man did.
Four years ago, a police officer in Greater Manchester, England, cited Markus Aitken for playing his Riverdance music too loud in his Ford Mustang. The official citation was for “causing excessive noise,” not for playing Riverdance.

His fine was only £30. I’m not sure how much that equals in dollars, but it seems relatively low to me. But he felt it was unjustified, causing him to refuse to pay the fine despite the numerous written demands and several visits from court bailiffs. He continued to argue that he would not pay the fine until he was allowed the opportunity to tell his side of the story in court.

The problem occurred when he finally got his chance in court. Due to administrative costs, the fine was nine times as much as the original fine. But when he finally got a chance to tell his case in court four years later, the judge didn’t even listen to his entire story. In fact, the case was over in four minutes because the judge dismissed the fine. According to his side of the story, the judge didn’t hear anything that was against any laws or ordinances.

Let that be a lesson to you. Sometimes fighting for principle is much more important than just paying a fine and getting rid of it. Or maybe the lesson is that you shouldn’t be playing Riverdance when you’re driving Ford cars.