A recent article on the CityNews.ca website examined the case of Dale Lyle, a man who was so determined to fight a speeding ticket that he went to enormous lengths. Lyle is clearly not a man you want to irk. When most people get a speeding ticket, they simply pay it or ignore it. Not Lyle.

When the Bristol, England man got a ticket for speeding, he was not happy. Police claimed that he was caught on photo radar driving 160 kilometres an hour on a highway with a posted limit of 110. Lyle was incensed, claiming that his car at the time, a 14-year-old Honda civic, was physically incapable of driving 160 kilometres per hour. When police refused to believe him and drop the matter, Lyle retrieved his car, which he had already sold and hired a driving expert who drove the car at a local race track and confirmed that the vehicle would not speed past 136 kilometres per hour in any gear.

Many people would have stopped there. Lyle already had evidence that would help him fight his ticket, which threatened his perfect driving record and which could cost him $1700 CDN and a 6-month licence suspension. But Lyle was not entirely satisfied. He obtained the photo radar that supposedly showed his vehicle driving 160 kilometres an hour – something Lyle had already proven was impossible. On the video, Lyle noticed many vehicles speeding much more than he was and claims that police misidentified his car as the speeder.

After Lyle provided this evidence, local authorities dropped the ticket, citing “lack of evidence” as the official reason for not pursuing the case. Lyle is not satisfied, however, and told the U.K.’s Daily Mail newspaper in an interview that the system takes aim at motorists who have done nothing wrong, simply because most drivers will not go to great lengths to avoid tickets and will simply pay up. Lyle is now headed to court to try to get back the money — over $2,100 CND — he alleges he had to pay to prove his innocence in the first place.