Published on: Tuesday, 6 March 2018
Last updated: Tuesday, 6 March 2018
People caught on travelling Greater Anglia trains without a ticket in Essex and Hertfordshire have been ordered to pay fines and court costs of over £75,000.
A total of 321 people were prosecuted after Greater Anglia Revenue Protection Inspectors caught them riding trains without a ticket and with no money or other means to pay.
St Albans Magistrates’ Court heard 70 cases on Wednesday 7 February, when magistrates imposed fines of £10,720 and costs of £5,488.
A further 63 fare dodgers appeared before St Albans magistrates on Wednesday 14 February, and were fined £9,363.20 and ordered to pay costs of £6,600.
Ticket dodgers appearing before St Albans magistrates had been caught by Revenue Protection staff patrolling the line from from Stansted, Bishops Stortford and Hertford East to London Liverpool Street.
On Monday 12 February, 188 people were prosecuted in Southend Magistrates’ Court. They had been caught without tickets on the Greater Anglia network in south Essex, including the Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street line.
Magistrates imposed fines of £23,458 and costs of £19,309.
Revenue Protection Inspectors can choose either to issue penalty fares - if people are travelling with a wrong ticket such as an Oyster card beyond Shenfield, or an adult using a child’s ticket - or start prosecution proceedings if the passenger had boarded the train with no intention of paying.
The company issues between 4,000 to 6,000 penalty fares a month and prosecutes between 500 to 700 people a month.
Andrew Goodrum, Greater Anglia Customer Service Director, said: “For every £1 spent on a ticket, 97p goes back into the railway. If you don’t pay for a ticket, it could result in fares going up for everyone and less investment in the railway.
“Our revenue protection team are out and about on the network, some in uniform, some in plain clothes. It’s just not worth the risk riding without a ticket – and it’s much cheaper to buy a ticket than end up in court with a fine.”