Falsely Accused of Fare Dodging

[Choix]

After showing my ticket this morning, I was falsely accused of fare dodging when the inspector noticed that I have a month's worth of train tickets on my person. Apparently, this is evidence that I have not been purchasing a new ticket every day I travel and have been reusing the same one all month!

Obviously that is completely illogical, since it actually proves that I buy a new ticket every day, but the inspector was absolutely convinced that he had caught a fare dodger.

He wanted to hold me up at the station so that he could look at every individual ticket individually to ensure that I hadn't reused any of them. Since this would have made me late for work, I refused to let him to do this. He then hurled a load of abuse at me.

The guy was not wearing anything displaying his name and refused to provide one. However, a complaint has been submitted and he can presumably be identified from which train he was on.

 

[AlterEgo]

He doesn’t have the right to ask to see any ticket not related to the journey being undertaken so you should have refused.

Nonetheless it can be hard to stand your ground in the moment - and I hope your complaint bears some fruit.

 

[BazingaTribe]

God forbid this guy caught me in the days when I had all my tickets stashed in my wallet because I got off the train at an unbarriered station. I did start tearing any left over up and throwing them away when leaving the station, after everything fell out of my wallet when I finally got rid of the build up (because they'd stretched the pockets too much as well) -- but just when you think you've heard everything!

(And if after that I did still happen to pull out the wrong ticket from my pocket they just said it was the wrong one and gave me a chance to find the correct one. Now I use e-tickets almost exclusively so it side-steps that issue entirely -- I complained once that a crew of trainees blocked the only barrier with e-ticket scanning capacity while being instructed on the station function and not very long after that, all the gates at Basingstoke had scanners.)

Good luck with the complaint. I hope it gets you the success that mine evidently got me.

 

[sheff1]

Had a similar experience some years ago when the inspector demanded to see all the tickets in my ticket wallet, although he didn’t actually accuse me of fare dodging. After that, I decided to keep the used tickets (needed for monthly expenses claims) in a separate ticket holder,and have continued to do the same ever since.

Hopefully you get a satisfactory response to your complaint. As you say, the allegation sounds completely illogical.

 

[Gloster]

If nothing else he was, according to my understanding, in breach of Railway Byelaw 24.3 by not identifying himself when requested to. (Others will presumably conform.)

I am not sure about the situation nowadays with the ‘abuse’, depending on what it consisted of. Certainly in my days forty years ago it could be a dismissal offence: I can think of one disciplinary transfer.

 

[Adam Williams]

There is no duty on the part of a passenger to keep their wallet organised, nor does the lack of that organisation constitute any sort of evidence of intent to evade a fare.

My own wallet is full of about 30 CCSTs! Until very recently there were an equal number strewn about on my desk as well, some well over a year old.

 

[Titfield]

Without doubting the word of the OP, the Ticket Inspector may have believed that the OP had purchased an anytime return ticket, the return portion valid for one journey within a month had not been scanned or marked as used, and the Op had then purchased single tickets for the outward journey continuing to use the return part of the original anytime return ticket until it was either scanned or marked or the validity period expired.

 

[The exile]

Without doubting the word of the OP, the Ticket Inspector may have believed that the OP had purchased an anytime return ticket, the return portion valid for one journey within a month had not been scanned or marked as used, and the Op had then purchased single tickets for the outward journey continuing to use the return part of the original anytime return ticket until it was either scanned or marked or the validity period expired.

Even then, the contents of his wallet would not have furnished proof of that.

 

[Titfield]

Even then, the contents of his wallet would not have furnished proof of that.

Agreed but it may have been what was in the mind of the ticket inspector.

 

[Choix]

He doesn’t have the right to ask to see any ticket not related to the journey being undertaken so you should have refused.

Nonetheless it can be hard to stand your ground in the moment - and I hope your complaint bears some fruit.

Thanks for confirming this. He actually said twice that he had the right to inspect every ticket I had with me. I assumed this was true as I know that tickets we are issued with remain the property of the railway. I didn't allow him to do it as I wasn't going to miss a train and be over 30 minutes late for work.

Without doubting the word of the OP, the Ticket Inspector may have believed that the OP had purchased an anytime return ticket, the return portion valid for one journey within a month had not been scanned or marked as used, and the Op had then purchased single tickets for the outward journey continuing to use the return part of the original anytime return ticket until it was either scanned or marked or the validity period expired.

This was actually a return ticket and I purchase five of these a week.

 

[nanstallon]

Bullies need to be stood up to. Well done, and good luck with your complaint.

 

[Krokodil]

Without doubting the word of the OP, the Ticket Inspector may have believed that the OP had purchased an anytime return ticket, the return portion valid for one journey within a month had not been scanned or marked as used, and the Op had then purchased single tickets for the outward journey continuing to use the return part of the original anytime return ticket until it was either scanned or marked or the validity period expired.

Wouldn't a person intent on doing that have bought a pair of Anytime Returns - one for each direction?

 

[Choix]

Wouldn't a person intent on doing that have bought a pair of Anytime Returns - one for each direction?

I made a post yesterday, which is still pending moderator approval, in which I specified that the ticket was an Anytime Day Return ticket, as are all of the others I have.

 

[Parham Wood]

Since all tickets as I understand it belong to the Railway and not the user does this mean they can check them all or is it only applicable to the journey being undertaken as mentioned above.

 

[AlterEgo]

Since all tickets as I understand it belong to the Railway and not the user

That's incorrect.