East Midlands Railway (EMR) has recovered nearly half a million pounds from fining or taking to court fraudulent travellers in the past ten months – helping reduce costs for taxpayers.
From January 1 to October 13, its Revenue Protections Officer and onboard staff have issued 9,642 Notices and successfully prosecuted 1,470 fare avoiders through the courts – returning a combined total of £493,000.
The fines and prosecutions were made for a number of reasons, including travelling without a valid ticket, fraudulently travelling on a child’s ticket, and travelling beyond the destination of their ticket.
People were only pursued through the courts after they travelled without a ticket and refused to pay for their journey and the corresponding fine.
Neil Grabham, Customer Services Director at East Midlands Railway, said: “The vast majority of our customers always buy a ticket, and they understand that for the railway to successfully operate, improve, and secure investment, fares need to be paid for.
“Sadly though, there are a minority of determined people who always look to evade paying or look for ways to work the system.
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“We have recently added to our revenue protection teams and created a totally new fraud team, all of whom will be doing everything they can to reduce ticketless travel and hold persistent offenders to account.’’
