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'Too loud' music fine is wiped out by judge
A DRIVER who stopped off in Bury to ask a policewoman for directions and was booked for playing music too loudly in his car has had his fine thrown out.
Markus Aitken (33) had spent four years fighting off bailiffs after being given a £30 ticket for "causing excessive noise".
The father-of-two, who works as a recovery driver, was given a ticket when he stopped his car on the Pilsworth industrial estate and asked a policewoman the way. He was playing a Riverdance CD at the time.
He refused to pay the fine, and in the months that followed he was pestered by demand letters and received six visits from bailiffs to his home in Smithy Bridge, Rochdale. The debt eventually rose to £270 because of administration costs.
On the last occasion he says they demanded entry at 7.30am, and shouted threats through the letterbox while he was inside with his girlfriend and their two sons aged four and four months.
At Bury Magistrates Court, Judge Alan Berg asked why he had not appealed against the fine, and Mr Aitken told him: "I told them all along that I wanted to go to court to sort it out, but nobody listened."
He says in the end the only way he could get to put his case before a judge was by refusing to pay his fine.
Mr Aitken said: "If the police could have produced one shred of proof that I was being a nuisance and making excessive noise, I would happily have paid up - but how could they?
"I maintain the music was not particularly loud. I was certainly able to hear what the policewoman was saying when she gave me directions, and she didn't seem to have any problem hearing me.
"I was absolutely stunned when she asked me if I thought it was a bit noisy, and told her No, not really'. Next thing she asked me to get out of the car and into her police vehicle, then promptly activated the door locking mechanism while she took my details.
"I asked her whether she didn't like Riverdance at the time, and the reaction I got made me think not. It was all very much over the top."
As Mr Aitken began to explain the circumstances fully in court, the judge interrupted saying: "I'm going to cut you short. In view of what I've heard, I'm going to wipe the debt out."
12:44pm Monday 5th May 2008
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