Fare Dodging Couple Who Defrauded The Railway Ordered To Pay £6K

A man and woman from Bishops Stortford who travelled on the railway using ‘short tickets’ have been ordered to pay back more than £6,000 to National Express East Anglia (NXEA) following a British Transport Police (BTP) investigation.

The couple, Stephanie Thorndycraft (23) and Liam Cox (26) of Clipped Hedge, Bishops Stortford, appeared at City of Westminster Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, 28 September 2011, after they pled guilty to fraud by false representation.

During proceedings, the court heard that Cox was stopped by a member of NXEA staff while sitting in a first class carriage at the beginning of July.

When asked for his ticket Cox said he didn’t have one because the ticket machines hadn’t been working, despite holding one in his hands. Cox continued to give feeble explanations, which the vigilant staff didn’t believe.

The train next arrived at Tottenham Hale station and soon after the member of staff cautioned Cox, he ran away.

BTP investigators worked with NXEA’s fraud unit and discovered that Cox had been travelling on ‘short tickets’ between Bethnal Green and Liverpool Street stations, despite logging down his home address as being in Sawbridgeworth

At the beginning of August, NXEA revenue protection officers covertly visited Cox’s home address, and saw a woman, later identified as Thorndycraft, walking out.

She then travelled on to Liverpool Street and when rail staff asked for her ticket they discovered that she had also been travelling on ‘short tickets’.

Constable Mandy Humphrey, the BTP investigating officer, said that during interview Cox admitted to travelling from Sawbridgeworth to London Liverpool Street five times a week since February 2010 in order to get to work:

“Cox went on to admit that he had been stopped before by rail staff on several occasions but would continue to travel fraudulently, despite being issued with fines.

“What’s worse is that Cox had freely told his girlfriend what he had been doing and Thorndycraft duly copied her boyfriend’s dishonest activities since the beginning of this year.”

BTP officers and National Express East Anglia calculated that in terms of compensation, Cox was responsible for £4,719.60 while Thorndycraft was responsible for £1,640.80

Constable Humphrey added: “Cox and Thorndycraft clearly enjoyed not paying their full rail fares, spending their excess money on expensive items.

“Although the couple made full and frank admissions, travel fraud is a serious crime and for this they thoroughly deserved to appear in front of the courts.

“Their sentence should serve as a warning to others that BTP, together with our railway colleagues, will continue to investigate and put a stop to prolific fraud offenders.”

Alan Perry,  National Express East Anglia’s Head of Revenue Protection said: “These successful prosecutions should act as a warning to those intent on defrauding the railway that their actions will not be tolerated.

“We will continue to work closely with the BTP to ensure that honest fare paying customers are not subsidising the rail travel of fare evaders.”

At court, both Cox and Thorndycraft also received 24-month conditional discharges and ordered to pay £85 in costs.

Half a million rail workers enjoy free or discounted travel Part 2

Following on from my original post yesterday I noticed a few things that were missed in the Telegraph article and should also be considered.

Rail Staff Discounted Tickets (PRIV) are only valid for Anytime Single and Return Tickets, otherwise known as the full price walk up fare.  In reality it is often cheaper for rail staff to obtain other railcards that are available to the public as these allow discount on off-peak tickets.

In the Telegaff article there are a couple of glaring omissions from the article relating to other industries that receive travel discounts.

Transport for London employees and their spouses/children receive free travel on the Underground, Overground, DLR, London Buses, Tramlink and selected NR routes!  In addition to this, those who joined TfL before 1st April 1996 also get the 75% discount that National Rail employees receive.

The real kicker in this debate is that Travel Agents and National Rail Enquiries Staff can get discount authority documents entitling them to 75% off most walk-up fares, including Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak! meaning that they get 75% off the REDUCED fares.

To give an example of this:

London Euston – Manchester Anytime Return is £279.00, the railstaff discount (PRIV) price is £69.75
London Euston – Manchester Off Peak Return is £70.00, the Travel Agent Discount Authority (TADA) price is £17.50!!!!

This means that a member of rail staff and a travel agent could be sitting next to each other on an off-peak train and the travel agent has paid £52.25 LESS for the same journey!!!

In conclusion, IF the Telegraph article had contained this information, then it might have been a balanced article and the “fury” of commuters could have been directed in the correct way.  Unfortunately, the Telegaff have gone off half cocked again, which means that the rail industry once again receives a bashing that it does not really deserve.