MEN wrote:
Bailiffs move in on Riverdance man
Deborah Linton
27/ 3/2008
A MOTORIST fined for playing his Riverdance CD too loudly is now fighting off bailiffs.
Markus Aitken has refused to pay the £30 penalty notice he got in 2004.
Costs added since then mean he now owes £270 - and the father of two has been called on by bailiffs five times.
The battle started when Mr Aitken, from Littleborough, Rochdale, stopped to ask an officer for directions in Bury.
She pointed the keen Irish dancer in the right direction before turning her attention to his music and giving him a ticket for 'excessive noise'.
The 33-year old insists he wants his day in court and evidence he committed an offence.
The last time bailiffs came to collect the money was at 7.30am. Mr Aitken says they shouted threats through the letterbox, while he was inside with his girlfriend and their two sons, aged four and four months.
Empty handed
They left an hour later, empty handed.
"It's just a farce - all this over Riverdance," said Mr Aitken, a recovery driver.
"It's hardly offensive and I don't believe it was too loud as I was able to have a conversation with the policewoman across a busy main road while it was playing.
"If there is evidence that I have committed an offence I will pay but I am waiting for them to take me to court to prove it."
Bailiffs visited his parents' pub, in Whitefield, four times in the months following the incident before turning up at his family home without a warrant.
A member of staff at Drake's Bailiffs said: "We're not chasing this any further. We will refer it to the magistrates' court."
A GMP spokesman said fixed penalty notices could be issued if officers believed a vehicle was causing 'excessive noise' and if that noise could be 'avoided by the exercise of reasonable care on the part of the driver'.
I honestly do not know how loudly he was playing this.
We have our in-car music system at mellow levels .. and we usually choose fave but melllowly "spirited" tunes.
I guess all have own tastes.. whilst I do enjoy Irish folk music.. Irish rock music.. Irish lilty music. I cannot say this Riverdance was ever to my own taste and would consider playing this a "crime" to my ears
but I concede many did like it.
But despite the taste in music.. just how loud does it have to be to be considered a "crime" and if the bloke with, what is to me, a naff taste in music played it too loudly.. I wonder how come he and the person he asked managed to hear each other
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