London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – A Tube passenger has been penalized nearly £1,800 by Transport for London (TfL) after repeatedly attempting to pay for journeys with an overdrawn card.
How Did the Tube Passenger Accumulate £1,200 in Unpaid Fares?
The unknown man racked up £1,200 in unpaid fares after utilising a contactless payment card without sufficient funds nearly 200 times. The fine levied by TfL comes on top of the outstanding fare amount. TfL utilised the example in committee documents in a conversation about how they might consider changing the payment model for their assistance as more customers tap in and out.
What Led to the Fine for the Contactless Payment Offender?”
Andy Lord, TfL commissioner, stated: “Use of contactless payment cards has increased in the last financial year, growing by 15 per cent on London Underground and 11 per cent on buses.
“This has been a main area of emphasis when investigating irregular travel patterns. In the last financial year, our investigations recognised 414 individuals who habitually avoided spending for all or part of their journeys, adding up to more than £363,000 of avoided fares.”
How Has the Increase in Contactless Payments Affected TfL Investigations?
He stated that in one case identified, the individual failed to accurately validate their contactless payment card 193 times, counting over £1,200 of unpaid fares. The individual heard court in April and pleaded culpable to all charges.
“We also placed another individual who was dodging fares by using a bank card that had insufficient funds,” Mr Lord said. Analysis of the card’s usage revealed a failure to validate every journey made in over a year. We employed CCTV footage to help find the offender. The individual observed court and pleaded guilty to all offences and was summoned to pay £1,796 to us.”
It was not said how the offender was able to get about the TfL checks. The guidance requests customers to always use the same device or contactless card to touch in and out to make sure they spend the right fare. TfL has stated it will shortly be launching a fresh fare evasion poster on the network, which includes the message “a fare is less than a fine”.