Ticket 'checks' at Baildon - what's the point?

Yesterday evening I arrived at Baildon and staff were present at both entrances asking for tickets. At the main entrance, of the 20 or so people who alighted, 7 had no tickets, including at least 3 who had been waiting near me at Guiseley (a station with both an open booking office and a working ticket machine).

However, the 'checker' had no obvious means of issuing tickets, never mind Penalty Fares, and merely said to the ticketless (once the ticketed had passed through) "next time make sure you get a ticket" and they were on their way, having had free travel.

Surely the basic requirement if someone arrives without a ticket is to sell them one and, I would have thought, a warning of the possibilty of a PF/prosecution. If the person employed to check tickets has no means of selling one I fail to understand the point of them being there - certainly the ticketless travellers seemed unperturbed (and they had the demeanour of regular commuters rather than occassional users).

Can anyone enlighten me as to the purpose of these 'checks'?