Using someone else’s railcard

[Harry0808]

Hi all,

Quick query here. One of my friend’s (we’ll call him Friend 1) 26-30 railcard has just expired and sadly he is no longer young enough to renew. He has asked my other friend (Friend 2) to screenshot his railcard, add a picture of Friend 1 and send it across. I’ve told them both this is fraud and both could likely get criminal records for this but can’t find anything online to evidence this.
Could someone please outline the consequences for both if they were to be caught?

Thanks!

 

[alholmes]

If they’re lucky, then Friend 1 might be able to secure an out of court settlement with the train company for tickets dishonesty bought, plus an admin fee (£150-ish).

If they’re unlucky, they’ll both be prosecuted for fraud - which means, repayment of fares, costs, fines imposed by court and criminal records.

And the longer they do it, the more likely they are to be caught, and the train company will be seeking repayment of all tickets purchased with the fake railcard, not just the ticket purchased on the day. They will eventually be caught.

It’s a pretty shocking state of affairs that they don’t know the difference between right and wrong.

 

[ikcdab]

Fake Railcards are pretty easy for the railway to spot. There is a very high likelihood of being caught. The consequences can be severe and might impact on careers. It goes without saying that this is a very bad idea indeed.

 

[gabrielhj07]

Quite amazed that at the ripe old age of 30, this chap can't see a problem doing that.

 

[Merseysider]

I expect they’ll be caught immediately because real railcards within the app have security features including changing colour.

Screenshots stand out like a sore thumb.

Oh and the scannable code can easily identify the real owner of the railcard.

 

[AlterEgo]

I expect they’ll be caught immediately because real railcards within the app have security features including changing colour.

Screenshots stand out like a sore thumb.

Yeah, this. It's a low-level and brainless fraud perpetrated only by the very stupid.

 

[spyinthesky]

Looking forward to see this thread linked with a future one asking for advice

 

[Merseysider]

On a side note, the friend can still get 1/3 off train tickets when travelling with a named companion using a Two Together Railcard - this might be something worth suggesting to them. If they are disabled there’s also a railcard for that.

 

[swt_passenger]

If the ‘friends’ live in Kent, like you, then a Network railcard might help with much of their travel within the wider southeast.

 

[thatguyal]

Hi all,

Quick query here. One of my friend’s (we’ll call him Friend 1) 26-30 railcard has just expired and sadly he is no longer young enough to renew. He has asked my other friend (Friend 2) to screenshot his railcard, add a picture of Friend 1 and send it across. I’ve told them both this is fraud and both could likely get criminal records for this but can’t find anything online to evidence this.
Could someone please outline the consequences for both if they were to be caught?

Thanks!

I did exactly the same thing and my luck ran out 2 months ago. I got caught using a screenshot of a digitally altered railcard that I took from my friend.

I received a settlement figure today from the prosecution team asking for £5000 which is absolutely crazy. They went through all my transaction history using my Trainline account and the email linked to the booking I used when I got caught and backtracked all the tickets I used with a discounted railcard which spanned 4 years.

Tell your mates that they’ll eventually get caught and it’s just not worth it to save a few extra quid.

Lesson learnt for me. Never again.

 

[Alfonso]

I think what is sometimes not obvious to a non-expert is that not having a ticket at all is usually a less serious crime than using a discount you are not entitled to, or having a ticket for some but not all of the journey to get you in and out of ticket gates. The former might incur a larger loss to the railway but just might be an omission but the latter two almost always have an element of intention,deceit or fraud.