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

[allticketspls]

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.

 

[4SRKT]

What I find most shocking is that it costs £4,719 for about 18 months of commuting from Sawbridgeworth to London, or between 15% and 20% of average take home pay in this country. While fraud is obviously wrong it's hardly surprising people try and get away with it as they do.

Do you think they tried to bunk the fare on the way to the court in Westminster?

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Well that was a good piece of detective work!

What I find most shocking is that it costs £4,719 for about 18 months of commuting from Sawbridgeworth to London, or between 15% and 20% of average take home pay in this country. . . .

I think we might all be guilty of underestimating the escalating cost of travel.

What's the true cost of driving? Twice the fuel costs is a good start.
We're all just going to get ued to these costs and if the "white heat of technology" hasn't made working from home easier then maybe the punitive costs of transport will.

This reminds me of one of the reasons for me leaving London (though commuting there as often as I do does make me wonder!).

 

[All Line Rover]

Well that was a good piece of detective work!

I think we might all be guilty of underestimating the escalating cost of travel.

What's the true cost of driving? Twice the fuel costs is a good start.
We're all just going to get ued to these costs and if the "white heat of technology" hasn't made working from home easier then maybe the punitive costs of transport will.

This reminds me of one of the reasons for me leaving London (though commuting there as often as I do does make me wonder!).

The reliability of a car has much to do with the true cost of driving.

The problem with train travel is that, in terms of pence per mile, some routes costs extortionate prices (e.g. most London commuter routes, Runcorn to Crewe, Wolverhampton to Crewe, Leamington Spa to Birmingham, Derby to Birmingham, Leicester to Birmingham, etc...), whilst others are a downright bargain (e.g. Crewe to Manchester, NWM routes, Merseyrail routes, Lancaster to Preston, many other Northern routes, Cardiff to Swansea, etc...). The "bargain" routes still rise in price each year, but they are significantly cheaper than certain other routes, even though the cost of providing the service is similar. So what is the justification for charging extortionate prices on certain routes?

I'm going off an a tangent though, so I'll shut up now!

 

[Ticket Man]

hats off to the RP at NXEA, that's a stand up piece of investigation work they did.

One has to question the fact that rail companies feel obliged to go out and perform they're own investigations into fraud rather than report it to the relevant authorities? I couldn't imagine going covertly to a suspects address to tail them (although it would break up the day). Feels like were moving towards a "dog the bounty hunter" situation and further from a police protected state.

mind you though if channel 5 latest program was "Ray the Fraudulent Passenger Hunter" I might be tempted to watch

 

[AlterEgo]

Nice to see the BTP have no idea what a "fine" is. Clearly the chap hadn't been issued with "fines" in the past, he'd been Penalty Fared or asked to buy new tickets.

Reassuring...

 

[185]

-Very nice house
-Not short of money

on the other hand....

-NXEAs RPOs/RPMs loitering outside passengers houses

I don't know who's worse

 

[4SRKT]

Well that was a good piece of detective work!

I think we might all be guilty of underestimating the escalating cost of travel.

What's the true cost of driving? Twice the fuel costs is a good start.
We're all just going to get ued to these costs and if the "white heat of technology" hasn't made working from home easier then maybe the punitive costs of transport will.

This reminds me of one of the reasons for me leaving London (though commuting there as often as I do does make me wonder!).

Although until I opted out of the company car scheme my true marginal cost of driving was only the fuel. There are quite a lot of company car drivers out there who will never consider any other mode IMHO. I only opted out because I don't really find driving enjoyable and as a crank am able to find cheap rail fares that benefit my employer by costing them less for my travel than them paying me the higher mileage rate for driving my own car (leading to 2011 being one of my highest rail mileage years ever )

I simply couldn't work from home at the moment. Kids are too young so my day would be over at 3:30 when they came home from school. Not to mention all the other distractions I would have. Luckily living in WY the fares aren't too prohibitive (yet) and I get to work by a mixture of car sharing and using the train (about twice a week).

 

[rockford]

I read this article in the paper yesterday. Surely it must have been BTP that did the surveillance?
What they did constitutes directed surveillance and I can't see any provisions under RIPA for a TOC to grant this authority...

 

[WestCoast]

The problem with train travel is that, in terms of pence per mile, some routes costs extortionate prices (e.g. most London commuter routes, Runcorn to Crewe, Wolverhampton to Crewe, Leamington Spa to Birmingham, Derby to Birmingham, Leicester to Birmingham, etc...), whilst others are a downright bargain (e.g. Crewe to Manchester, NWM routes, Merseyrail routes, Lancaster to Preston, many other Northern routes, Cardiff to Swansea, etc...). The "bargain" routes still rise in price each year, but they are significantly cheaper than certain other routes, even though the cost of providing the service is similar. So what is the justification for charging extortionate prices on certain routes?

hmmm, Leamington Spa to Birmingham New Street (28 miles with XC) is "extortionate" at £8.00 for Anytime Day Single, while Lancaster to Preston (20 miles) is a "downright bargain" at £7.40 for the same fare? :? OK, the latter is faster but it's not a "downright bargain", and the WMDR covers the former.

 

[cuccir]

Cox continued to give feeble explanations, which the vigilant staff didn’t believe.

Good investigative work and glad they were caught - but that's terrible journalism. 'Feeble' explanations and 'vigilant' staff editorialises the content as you read it!

 

[Deerfold]

Not sure this is the triumph it sounds. They've been travelling on dodgy tickets for 18 months and have had to pay it back (which they should have paid anyway) + £85 costs (and a conditional discharge). This sounds far less proportionately than far less clear cut cases which have cost people hundreds for dodging one fare (or walking past a ticket office after having no previous opportunity to buy - wrong but hardly in the same category.

 

[supervalkoinen]

The reliability of a car has much to do with the true cost of driving.

The problem with train travel is that, in terms of pence per mile, some routes costs extortionate prices (e.g. most London commuter routes, Runcorn to Crewe, Wolverhampton to Crewe, Leamington Spa to Birmingham, Derby to Birmingham, Leicester to Birmingham, etc...), whilst others are a downright bargain (e.g. Crewe to Manchester, NWM routes, Merseyrail routes, Lancaster to Preston, many other Northern routes, Cardiff to Swansea, etc...). The "bargain" routes still rise in price each year, but they are significantly cheaper than certain other routes, even though the cost of providing the service is similar. So what is the justification for charging extortionate prices on certain routes?

I'm going off an a tangent though, so I'll shut up now!

Do you include the one stop cash cow under the river?

 

[swt_passenger]

This seems pretty lenient on the face of it. NXEA should have gone for 18 months worth (less holidays and weekends) of Anytime returns...

 

[4SRKT]

This seems pretty lenient on the face of it. NXEA should have gone for 18 months worth (less holidays and weekends) of Anytime returns...

Why, if this is not what anyone commuting regularly would have bought?

 

[Deerfold]

Why, if this is not what anyone commuting regularly would have bought?

It's the minimum they'd have had to pay if caught each day, surely?

 

[4SRKT]

It's the minimum they'd have had to pay if caught each day, surely?

But they wouldn't have been caught each day.

 

[martinsh]

Do you include the one stop cash cow under the river?

I have visions of a cow manning the toll booths on the Mersey Tunnels ! hock:

 

[Deerfold]

I have visions of a cow manning the toll booths on the Mersey Tunnels ! hock:

You mean you've not seen it?

 

[WestCoast]

I have visions of a cow manning the toll booths on the Mersey Tunnels ! hock:

Don't you mean the superlambanana?!

 

[All Line Rover]

hmmm, Leamington Spa to Birmingham New Street (28 miles with XC) is "extortionate" at £8.00 for Anytime Day Single, while Lancaster to Preston (20 miles) is a "downright bargain" at £7.40 for the same fare? :? OK, the latter is faster but it's not a "downright bargain", and the WMDR covers the former.

No, no, you misunderstand. I was only referring to season tickets (which does seem pretty obvious when you consider the context of this thread ).

Both are almost identical distances. Here are the yearly season ticket prices for both flows...

Leamington Spa to Birmingham:

• £1796 (Standard Class)
• £3600 (First Class)

Lancaster to Preston:

• £1328 (Standard Class)
• £1992 (First Class)

Surprise, surprise, Leamington Spa to Birmingham is priced by CrossCountry, whereas Lancaster to Preston is priced by Northern! :roll:

First Class for Lancaster to Preston is only a little bit more than Standard Class for Leamington Spa to Birmingham, even though you have a good chance of getting a sandwich and some alcohol when travelling with Virgin!

 

[Paul Kelly]

Surprise, surprise, Leamington Spa to Birmingham is priced by CrossCountry, whereas Lancaster to Preston is priced by Northern!

The difference in standard class fares is proportional to the difference in distance, and those fares are protected by fares regulation, so no surprise there really. However CrossCountry have priced the first class season at twice the standard class fare, whereas Northern seem to have used the traditional factor of 1.5.

 

[WestCoast]

No, no, you misunderstand. I was only referring to season tickets (which does seem pretty obvious when you consider the context of this thread ).

Both are almost identical distances. Here are the yearly season ticket prices for both flows...

Leamington Spa to Birmingham:

• £1796 (Standard Class)
• £3600 (First Class)

Lancaster to Preston:

• £1328 (Standard Class)
• £1992 (First Class)

Surprise, surprise, Leamington Spa to Birmingham is priced by CrossCountry, whereas Lancaster to Preston is priced by Northern! :roll:

First Class for Lancaster to Preston is only a little bit more than Standard Class for Leamington Spa to Birmingham, even though you have a good chance of getting a sandwich and some alcohol when travelling with Virgin!

There's nothing wrong with the Standard Class season ticket prices there (well, they could always be cheaper!), they reflect the distance quite well. It would be difficult to justify First Class on a 15ish minutes journey from Preston to Lancaster, you don't have a good chance of getting any 'free food' (:roll since Preston is often used as a crew changeover point.

 

[All Line Rover]

The difference in standard class fares is proportional to the difference in distance, and those fares are protected by fares regulation, so no surprise there really. However CrossCountry have priced the first class season at twice the standard class fare, whereas Northern seem to have used the traditional factor of 1.5.

May I ask what you mean by "the difference in distance?" As a straight point-to-point measurement (which is what most people care about when comparing distances), Leamington Spa to Birmingham New Street is 20.3 miles, whereas Lancaster to Preston is 20.5 miles. Almost identical!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

There's nothing wrong with the Standard Class season ticket prices there (well, they could always be cheaper!), they reflect the distance quite well. It would be difficult to justify First Class on a 15ish minutes journey from Preston to Lancaster, you don't have a good chance of getting any 'free food' (:roll since Preston is often used as a crew changeover point.

Although Lancaster to Preston is only about 20 minutes, if you are travelling on a Super Voyager to Birmingham, the First Class host usually serves food after every stop. So you have a good chance of getting a free sandwich! You are also guaranteed a seat (effectively) if travelling First Class between Lancaster and Preston, whereas you'd need to be lucky to even get a seat if travelling Standard Class between Leamington Spa and Birmingham during peak times!

 

[WestCoast]

May I ask what you mean by "the difference in distance?" As a straight point-to-point measurement (which is what most people care about when comparing distances), Leamington Spa to Birmingham New Street is 20.3 miles, whereas Lancaster to Preston is 20.5 miles. Almost identical!

No, when talking about railways I don't think 'as the crow flies' is the right way to do it. Lancaster to Preston is about 20 miles by train and Leamington Spa to Birmingham New Street via Coventry and Birmingham International (which is the way XC goes) is about 28 miles.

In some countries, rail fares are calculated on a per mile/KM basis and this would be based upon track distances.

 

[All Line Rover]

No, when talking about railways I don't think 'as the crow flies' is the right way to do it. Lancaster to Preston is about 20 miles by train and Leamington Spa to Birmingham New Street via Coventry and Birmingham International (which is the way XC goes) is about 28 miles.

In some countries, rail fares are calculated on a per mile/KM basis and this would be based upon track distances.

But the average Joe doesn't care what long winded route the train takes! (I would also point out that only 1 train per hour goes via Coventry, the other takes the more direct route.) The average Joe would just think: "It's 20 miles to Birmingham - the train fare is quite steep for that." Lets also not forget that Leamington Spa to Birmingham (via the direct route) still takes double the time that Lancaster to Preston takes. How can a higher fare be justified? Packed trains, Voyagers only (hock, long journey time, pathetic First Class service, etc, etc... :roll:

 

[snail]

Although Lancaster to Preston is only about 20 minutes

It's 13-15 minutes southbound, 17-19 minutes northbound. You would get indigestion trying to guzzle down a sandwich in that time.

 

[Statto]

It's 13-15 minutes southbound, 17-19 minutes northbound. You would get indigestion trying to guzzle down a sandwich in that time.

I can easily manage to eat a Sandwhich in that time without getting Indigestion. Normally takes me about 5 min to eat a Sandwhich, it takes me a bit longer to eat a Baguette though.

 

[Paul Kelly]

May I ask what you mean by "the difference in distance?" As a straight point-to-point measurement (which is what most people care about when comparing distances), Leamington Spa to Birmingham New Street is 20.3 miles, whereas Lancaster to Preston is 20.5 miles. Almost identical!

I was going by the distances posted by WestCoast (didn't realise that he meant via Coventry though; half the XC trains go that way and half the more direct way via Solihull). Calculating what the distance-proportional fare is: (20/28) * £1,796 = £1,282, i.e. not very far off the actual fare. So it looked to me like the fares may have been originally set based on the maximum contiguous mileage of railway track your season ticket entitled you to unlimited travel over. No comment on whether this is reasonable or unreasonable but it's certainly an unambiguous way of doing it, that's not open to subjective judgements based on the quality of rolling stock and service provided (which can change over time..)

 

[snail]

I can easily manage to eat a Sandwhich in that time without getting Indigestion. Normally takes me about 5 min to eat a Sandwhich, it takes me a bit longer to eat a Baguette though.

Yes, but you have to be served first. I guess you would be ok if you sat in Coach K.