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A court has rejected a 60 year old mans attempt to invoke the ancient right to trial by combat, rather than pay a £25 fine for a motoring offence.
Leon Humphreys remained adamant yesterday that his right to fight a champion nominated by the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA) was still valid under European Human Rights legislation. He said it would have been a “reasonable” way to solve the matter.
Magistrates sitting at Bury St Edmunds disagreed and instead of accepting his offer to take on a clerk from Swansea with “Samurai Swords, Ghurka knives or Heavy Hammers” fined him £200 with £100 worth of costs.
Humphreys, an unemployed mechanic, was taken to court after refusing to pay the original £25 fixed penalty for failing to notify the DVLA that his Suzuki motorcycle was off the road.
After entering a not guilty plea, he threw down his unconventional challenge. Humphreys from Bury St Edmunds, said “I was willing to fight a champion put up by the DVLA, but it would have been a fight to the death”
