Bela Kosoian was told by a police officer in a Quebec metro station to respect a sign saying “hold the handrail”, but refused and subsequently declined to identify herself.

She was briefly arrested and slapped with a £60 fine for disobeying the sign and a £185 fine for obstructing a worker, but she successfully fought them in court.

The woman brought a lawsuit against Montreal’s transit authority, the City of Laval and the officer in question in 2012, and fought it all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, CBC reports.

The country’s top judges have ordered $20,000 CAD (around £11,500) to be paid to Ms Kosoian because she was “entitled to refuse to obey an unlawful order and therefore committed no fault”.