Travelling without the correct rail fare in the UK is a serious offence and rail operators take a tough stance against fare dodgers. In the UK, prosecution for travelling without the correct rail fare is a common thing, train companies do it all the time.
Travel fraud costs the UK rail industry £400 million per year and most companies have zero tolerance against fare evasion on the UK rail network.
This whole railway prosecution nightmare comes under Section 5 – Regulation of Railways Act 1889. Some companies always ask that UK courts impose the maximum penalty for rail fare evasion, which can include the following:
- A criminal record
- Fine of up to £1,000
- Prison sentence
- Community service
- Seizure of any computer equipment (if involved)
- Compensation
- Costs
UK Rail Fare Evasion Stories
You may think this sounds harsh for a bit of rail fare dodging in the UK, especially since they call it the fairest society in the world! I did too – but let me assure you this is exactly what will happen if you try to travel on UK trains without the correct fare. If you don’t believe me, read my story below or click on the following links to read about the experiences of others.
- Prosecutions Summons From Westminster Court For Rail Fare Evasion
- Fare Dodger To Pay £43,000 In Penalty, Banned From Financial Services
- Rail Fares: Guilty Until Proven Innocent
- Why Are Rail Passenger Guilty Until Proven Innocent
- Govia Thameslink Fare Dodger’s Story
- Court Summons For Travelling Without A Rail Card
- Got Caught Fare Dodging – What To Do?
- Moment Of Madness Cost Me My Job
- Thameslink Intention To Prosecute – Settled Out Of Court
My Story Of Unintended Consequences
I could carry on pasting links and examples for ever, the list is pretty much endless. But I learned this the hard way one day travelling from Luton Airport to south London. I bought a train ticket from Wizzair from Luton Airport to London, thinking it would be valid until my home town. Problem is, it turned out the ticket was only valid until Elephant & Castle and not all the way home. Guess what? The one day I did not have a valid ticket the conductor came and checked everyone’s tickets.
I’ve been travelling this line for seven years, never once without a ticket! Add to this that in those years I could count on one hand how many times I met a conductor!
Of course, I had a ticket, the problem is I should have got out and tap in with my debit card at Elephant and Castle or St Pancras. Anyhow, the conductor seemed nice enough, he took my details and said it would probably be a matter of paying the difference in the fare. This came to about £2.90 or £3.90 as we calculated.
Touching Out Without Touching In
I said I did not understand the system of giving fines when I could have just touched out in Sutton and pay the full fare. This happens when you don’t touch in at the beginning of the journey. But he said that is also fraudulent as it would mean travelling with the intent of evading payment for a valid ticket. So basically, no matter what I do I should have had a correct ticket.
Needless to say I will never buy that ticket on Wizzair again, unless my destination is central London. It is no use to go to south London as I need to get off the train, leave the station and then enter again. I might as well go to Luton Station and buy a single all the way home.
Anyhow, here I was very annoyed, expecting a fine of like £25-50. The weeks passed, I completely forgot about the whole thing when one morning I got the below letter from Govia Thameslink.
Shock And Horror!
You can imagine I was in shock and horror when I read the letter! I was like “WTF is going on??”!!! The conductor promised me it would just be a matter of paying a penalty fare and these bunch of pricks send me this threatening letter!
So I responded by explaining what happened and pointing out that being so heavy handed is extremely unhelpful. It also unduly stresses people out and there is absolutely no need for that, especially given that it was a complete oversight on my part.
I offered to pay a fine and I hoped it would be case closed.
Prosecution for Travelling Without The Correct Rail Fare
Instead, Govia Thameslink responded by saying they will prosecute me anyway! The bastards sent me this one liner below:
I got this letter at 730PM when I got home and needless to say I was totally in shock again! I could not believe they would take me to court over a £2.90 unpaid fare. Especially that it was absolutely not my intention to board the train without a ticket entitling travel. Those nasty bunch of pricks obviously did not bother to read my letter, instead just sent me this template response to prosecute.
I furiously started searching online what to do in this case and I found out that people were prosecuted over 10 pence too! A lady ended up losing her job over a two quid unpaid ticket! You can imagine panic started setting in thinking that’s it, I am going to prison for not buying the correct ticket. The next morning, having hardly slept at all I woke up and messaged all my friends for advice.
I used to volunteer for two railway programs in the South of England so some of the people knew far more about this than I did. Unfortunately the best they could advice is to either take them to court or to plead one more time.
Response From My Friends
This is what one of the more experienced person said:
The issue is the tickets that are bought to London termini are only valid to Central London Termini. I did think at the time you had bought the ticket from Gatwick to London so was horrified when I thought that you were fined for travelling to South London as it would be in between Gatwick to London indirectly but you could get away with it.
Luton to London sadly is far off the mark, if you were alighting at Mill Hill it would be very questionable if the fine would be valid. Let’s just hope that GTR will write it off but legally I think they have the right to process the charge.
So I was like fucking great, I am definitely going to prison now! As a last resort, I began to furiously call the number on the letterhead but nobody responded! I kept calling until finally an old lady picked up and asked why I was calling.
I explained the situation to her and she got my file out of the cabinet. She read the documents then told me if I paid the fare which came to £6.50 (non-oyster full, paper-ticket fare) and a fine of £54.90 then they would close the case and settle out of court.
Needless to say I could not get my credit card out fast enough! I gave the number over the phone and four days later I got the below response from Govia Thameslink:
Basically, the single ticket to Luton cost me £16.90 then the single from Luton to London another £16.90 and the penalty of £61.40 on top! This came to a total of £95.20, which was actually more than the return plane ticket to Budapest!
Now if I add that the government is thinking of stripping Govia Thameslink from its license to operate trains it infuriates me even more! These bastards get away with everything, cancelling trains, never running on time, making hundreds of thousands of people late from work and turning their lives into misery and then I get into shit like this! The worst is they didn’t even seem to give a crap at all!
I am just so glad it is over – difficult to explain the stress I went through! In the end I can only wonder why they did not just send me a cheque to pay the penalty fare in the first place? Are they some sadomasochist bastards that enjoy when passengers suffer? I am beginning to think that’s what they are!