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Should 'Commuter A' have been Prosecuted?

Should Commuter A have been Prosecuted?


  • Total voters
    98


Barrel of Fun

Abort, retry, fail


Husty

Mooderator
Oct 18, 2008
11,973
Out of interest, prosecute him for what? Presumably they could only take him to court for the back payments, that he has agreed to pay anyway?

(And for what it's worth, I'm in the 'he's a hero' camp, even if he is a banker.)
 




father_and_son

Well-known member
Jan 23, 2012
4,646
Under the Police Box
Given he has agreed to pay, they have no reason to prosecute. Fare dodging is a civil rather than criminal matter, so if he pays then there is no further case against him.

Frankly, I am indifferent to whether or not a fare dodger gets away with it. The TCs will increase the fare by the maximum they can get away with so the idea he was somehow robbing the other commuters is boll*cks. This is leakage, all companies are subject to it and any company that does nothing about it deserves to be ripped off.
 


Westdene Seagull

aka Cap'n Carl Firecrotch
NSC Patreon
Oct 27, 2003
20,938
The arse end of Hangleton
Shame they cannnot prosecute Southern and Network Rail for crap service.

And excessive fare increases with no service improvement, and sudden closure of stations / lines / services with bugger little compensation, for services arriving late, for stupidly high fares, for removing toilet services from trains etc etc etc. You get what you deserve and the railway companies deserve to get passengers avoiding fares for the pathetically poor service they provide.
 




skipper734

Registered ruffian
Aug 9, 2008
9,189
Curdridge
To do it once could be carelessness, to do £43,000 worth is fraud on a massive and deliberate scale. However much you think that the rail company deserves all it gets, or maybe it does as they are the body accepting an out of Court anonymous settlement.
 


Cian

Well-known member
Jul 16, 2003
14,262
Dublin, Ireland
43k must have some hefty punitive element to it? I can't even imagine how you'd have to pay 8k a year at season ticket rates.
 


surrey jim

Not in Surrey
Aug 2, 2005
18,085
Bevendean
Just checked on South Eastern Railway site and a season ticket from Stonegate to London is £4548. Are the railway company saying he managed to avoid paying fares for 10 years?? :eek:

Surley there must be a massive gap in their processes if one individual can go unoticed for that ammount of time.
 




Badger

NOT the Honey Badger
NSC Patreon
May 8, 2007
12,749
Toronto
To do it once could be carelessness, to do £43,000 worth is fraud on a massive and deliberate scale. However much you think that the rail company deserves all it gets, or maybe it does as they are the body accepting an out of Court anonymous settlement.

That's probably how much it costs to buy a single if you pay on the day.
 


mikeyjh

Well-known member
Dec 17, 2008
4,473
Llanymawddwy
Let's be clear, had this been a dirty foreigner (who probably has 8 kids, sky tv and and an iPhone) had erroneously claimed £43k of benefits, the Mail and many on here would have be telling us what scum they are and how it's hard working families that suffer. Not being able to prosecute him is strange, suspect others may try it based on that. Greedy ****.
 


martyn20

Unwell but still smiling
Aug 4, 2012
3,080
Burgess Hill
Pretty sure the law/rules say you pay for your ticket before or during your journey, that's what everyone else does so he should have done the same. I assume he does not go into shops and take what he wants and only pays when the police or solicitors catch up with him.
Whether he has the money to pay does not make a difference to the offences he has committed.
 




Sergei's Celebration

Well-known member
Jan 3, 2010
3,603
I've come back home.
I pay over £4k a year for my train ticket, i want to see every fare dodger be thrown off so i can get a seat.

And those who put bags on the seat.

And those that arrive late and sneak into the q's from the sides.

And those that push me in the back.

And those that have their music on too loud.

And those that look at my laptop when i am working.

And those that can't figure out why their signal drops off when they enter a tunnel.

And those that eat stenching food next to me.

And those that don't respect the 50/50 elbow space on an arm rest.

And those that are just bleedin' rude.

And those that push past you in the vein hope that there is a magical carriage with no one in.

And those who's morbid obesity means i only have half a seat.

And those who don't move into the middle of the carriage when its busy standing.

And those that don't give up a seat to the elderly / pregnant / injured etc...

And those that don't let the people off first and try and push through the doors.

I could go on...
 


Badger

NOT the Honey Badger
NSC Patreon
May 8, 2007
12,749
Toronto
And those that eat stenching food next to me.

And those that don't respect the 50/50 elbow space on an arm rest.

The woman next to me this morning fell into these 2 categories, twice I got woken up by her elbow hitting me in the arm, she didn't seem to notice.
 


glasfryn

cleaning up cat sick
Nov 29, 2005
20,261
somewhere in Eastbourne
he is a thief
he has thieved from you who travel by rail
and I don't care what he does for a living
a thief is a thief whatever way you dress it up
2 years in the Scrubs
and fined double what he has defrauded the rail company
 






Beach Hut

Brighton Bhuna Boy
Jul 5, 2003
71,903
Living In a Box
Prosecution
 


beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
35,264
Just checked on South Eastern Railway site and a season ticket from Stonegate to London is £4548. Are the railway company saying he managed to avoid paying fares for 10 years?? :eek:

Surley there must be a massive gap in their processes if one individual can go unoticed for that ammount of time.

yes, a gap at Stonegate where there should be a ticket barrier. makes you wonder how much of this goes on at the other small rural stations.
 






Heffle Gull

JCL since 1979
Feb 5, 2004
873
Heathfield
yes, a gap at Stonegate where there should be a ticket barrier. makes you wonder how much of this goes on at the other small rural stations.


The Ticket office at stone gate is only open at peak times i.e early morning. It does not open at the weekends at all. If you get a Train From Stonegate when the office is shut you are expected to buy a ticket from the conductor. As far as I am aware, most rural stations on this line operate this way (Etchingham, Wadhurst Frant etc).
 


happypig

Staring at the rude boys
May 23, 2009
7,934
Eastbourne
Shocking decision by the train company.
If this feller is allowed to simply pay the outstanding fares (notwithstanding its a lot of money) then someone on benefits should be offered the same when they have been caught dodging the £5 odd fare from Bexhill to Eastbourne ?
There are two "levels" of railway fare evasion; the first is "failing to produce a ticket or pay fare on request" and the second is "travelling with intent to avoid payment".
When prosecuted, the punishment range is from a Conditional discharge to a band C fine (1.5x weekly wage), plus costs. Additionally the offender is ordered to pay the fare evaded.
The maximum penalty for this is 3 months imprisonment and I would say that a series of offences of this magnitude would be getting towards that (if he doesn't have previous convictions and has repaid the money, then it would probably move into the territory of a Community Penalty such as unpaid work.
 



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