Sometimes it doesn’t pay to do a good deed. Police nab the `good guy’ when Ontario driver is caught, charged and convicted of street-racing after a 911 dispatch operator told him to “get the plate” of another driver waving a gun.

Taki Christopolous was driving home from downtown Toronto when a man pulled up beside him at a stop light, made a rude hand gesture and pulled out a gun. Immediately calling 911 to report the incident, the operator instructed Christopolous to get the license plate number of the instigator’s vehicle.

A high-speed highway chase ensued until Constable Sven Wiggermann pulled over Christopolous and charged him with “chasing” – a violation of Ontario’s stunt driving law. They impounded his BMW and suspended his license for seven days.

Toronto paralegal Philip Alexiu, the defendant’s legal representative, offered an “officially-induced error” defence in an October 2009 trial. From MacLeans.ca:

“He accelerated briefly to try and obtain the plate, and then slowed right back down when he realized the other vehicle was going much too fast,” says his paralegal, Phil Alexiu. “And the only reason he even accelerated was because he was directed by 911 to see if he could obtain the plate.”

While Christopolous maintains he never exceeded 120 km/h, the traffic officer testified the defendant’s BMW weaved between lanes and, at one point, clocked in at 168 km/h.

Toronto Justice of the Peace, Mary Ross Hendriks, ruled in favour of the Crown and said the advice of the 911 operator “was akin to a discussion with an appropriate official, not authorization to engage in high-speed pursuit.”

Christopolous was fined $2,000 and has filed an appeal.

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