Britain’s biggest fare-dodger avoids prosecution

Southeastern railways has accepted an out-of-court-settlement offer from a commuter who is alleged to have dodged train fares to London worth close to £43,000. 

The man, who kept his anonymity as a result of offering to make the extraordinary payment, has also avoided criminal prosecution after making the settlement. 

Described as a City executive by the Sunday Times, the man travelled for five years from a rural station in East Sussex into London Bridge only paying £7.20 for his journey by exploiting a loophole in the Oyster card system. 

A Southeastern spokesman said: “We take the issue of fare evasion very seriously and are proactively taking the battle to people who try to avoid paying their way. We’ve quadrupled the number of revenue protection officers that are out on our network tackling this offence since our franchise started in 2006 and we now have a 150-strong team. 

“We recognise that this issue is important to customers who pay their way and expect the system to treat them with fairness by acting against people who don’t buy tickets. This case highlights the cost of fare evasion to the industry and the scale of the penalties that individuals face when caught. We hope it will act as a deterrent, particularly given that the sum involved is far above the average earnings of most of the fare-paying public."

Manual Cortes, leader of the TSSA rail union, said: “It is not only extraordinary that the biggest fare-dodger in railway history got away with it for so long, but has also now escaped criminal prosecution as well.” 

(Image copyright: TfL) 

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