Interesting one this, but I suggest we're not getting all the story here.
If the rail company had taken him to court surely two of the questions they would have had to field would have been 'Why didn't you check his ticket before he boarded the train at Stonegate?', and 'Why did it you take so long to find out?'
I suspect the onus would be on the train company to prove that he used the train every day during the period. If he was to claim that he didn't and they couldn't prove it beyond a reasonable doubt he might have had to pay nothing. Thus the train company did, indeed, take the money in exchange for letting him off going to court.
It is wrong, but it is the way of the world. Private schools, private health, first class travel, expensive geographical residential areas, the list goes on. For those that have more money there are ways to 'buy' a better life. The upshot for those that have less money is that some of the surplus money provides for the services that the less wealthy enjoy. In this case that £40k+ could be used to refurbish a train which will make it more enjoyable for those that already pay for their tickets to travel.
I know members on here like to knock the rich, and especially those that work in banking, but I suspect that the business decision would be the same irrespective as to the level of wealth. Any business that turns down money to make a point needs a change of management. I don't think that fare dodgers would be any more inclined to stop if this chap was given a punishment that is realistic. Eighteen months in prison, maybe, but I suspect that the worst that would have happened would have been an extra fine, and chances are that it would have been less, in total, than what he paid anyway.
I would also suggest that the train company would make itself look silly if it had to admit that it has a route that costs over £8k a year and their processes are so slack that one individual could get away with not buying the appropriate ticket for five years.
If he used his Oyster card each time to facilitate this fraud, provided he had registered the card to his name and address, I think that each time it is used the transaction shows up. Therefore if he did this each day, then there is a strong inference that he travelled on the railway without a ticket. There are still a number of permutations ('I didn't come from Stonegate each day and I bought return tickets from wherever' but I am surprised that the company just took the cash and didn't seek to refer the matter for a decision on prosecution.
I wonder if his clients will stick by him if/when his name gets out? Would you want a fraudster handling your money? Could be a Bernie Madoff who rips off everyone.
If he used his Oyster card each time to facilitate this fraud, provided he had registered the card to his name and address, I think that each time it is used the transaction shows up. Therefore if he did this each day, then there is a strong inference that he travelled on the railway without a ticket. There are still a number of permutations ('I didn't come from Stonegate each day and I bought return tickets from wherever' but I am surprised that the company just took the cash and didn't seek to refer the matter for a decision on prosecution.
I wonder if his clients will stick by him if/when his name gets out? Would you want a fraudster handling your money? Could be a Bernie Madoff who rips off everyone.
Now that would be a proper punishment. Chances are that his company might feel obliged to sack him in any event.
I wonder if his clients will stick by him if/when his name gets out? Would you want a fraudster handling your money? Could be a Bernie Madoff who rips off everyone.
Now that would be a proper punishment. Chances are that his company might feel obliged to sack him in any event.
Well, maybe. Depends whether they handle client money or not. There's plenty of small outfits in the city that just do proprietary trading with their owner's private funds and don't need authorisation. So, maybe he's not client-facing and if he's a good earner he'll be kept on. (Much like the long, long list of errant footballers who are too good/valuable to be sacked no matter what.)
His fare dodge is pretty basic and his case must be the tip of the iceberg - I've always suspected many thousands do the same thing every day.
No ticket checks on peak-time trains, or at his local station, means he gets all the way into town unchallenged.
He keeps a Zone 1 travelcard (or a pay as you go) to get through the barriers in town at the minimum fare. The barriers don't know or care where he's come from.
Even a zone 3 station like Charlton often allows people to stroll in and out, not touching in and out. Why bother with a Zone 1-3 travelcard when a Zone 1 travelcard will do the job?
If he used his Oyster card each time to facilitate this fraud, provided he had registered the card to his name and address, I think that each time it is used the transaction shows up. Therefore if he did this each day, then there is a strong inference that he travelled on the railway without a ticket. There are still a number of permutations ('I didn't come from Stonegate each day and I bought return tickets from wherever' but I am surprised that the company just took the cash and didn't seek to refer the matter for a decision on prosecution.
I wonder if his clients will stick by him if/when his name gets out? Would you want a fraudster handling your money? Could be a Bernie Madoff who rips off everyone.
Exactly this. Hope The Times are successful in finding out who he is.
My suspicion would be that the person concerned works for a hedge fund rather than manages one (because the latter would be well aware of the reputational risk as highlighted above), but either way I'd be surprised if the name remains secret for very long.
Stonegate is my local station. Whenever I travel to London there are ALWAYS ticket inspectors checking tickets on the train except on the return journey after 20.00. Amazed he got away with it so long.
This is the sort of thing most people simply were not too bothered about before social media came along and mass hysteria took over the news.
I don't think my views on fare dodging have changed one iota since the introduction of Twitter tbh. Until he was caught this bloke's £42k lost revenue came from everyone else who pays their (exorbitant or not) fare every day - it's not a victimless crime any more than shoplifting, burglary or many other crimes are and I suspect that we would all be 'hysterical' if over forms of thieves like burglars were simply allowed to pay back what they'd nicked.
TBH I'm surprised that so many of you who have subsidised this blokes travels cost for years are happy for him to walk away with only paying what he should have done in the first place.
This is the sort of thing most people simply were not too bothered about before social media came along and mass hysteria took over the news.
I don't think my views on fare dodging have changed one iota since the introduction of Twitter tbh. Until he was caught this bloke's £42k lost revenue came from everyone else who pays their (exorbitant or not) fare every day - it's not a victimless crime any more than shoplifting, burglary or many other crimes are and I suspect that we would all be 'hysterical' if over forms of thieves burglars were simply allowed to pay back what they'd nicked.
TBH I'm surprised that so many of you who have subsidised this blokes travels cost for years are happy for him to walk away with only paying what he should have done in the first place.
There was a thread on here a while back where many people thought burglary was only slightly behind murder in a list of terrible crimes.
It's at best pragmatic of the train company to accept the payout. The money should have been paid already (and spent on refurbishing trains or whatever).
Skin him alive and roll him in salt. Rich bastard should be named, shamed. Then shot.
End of.
He says while throwing another 50 pound note on t'fire........... :-)
He is a well known and respected vegetarian and animal welfare activist he was using his saved money from the corporate machine of southeastern for the uses of saving little fluffy bunnies
I have offered to assist with his fine by re opening my cosmetic testing factory on bunnies and monkeys
Skin him alive and roll him in salt. Rich bastard should be named, shamed. Then shot.
End of.
He says while throwing another 50 pound note on t'fire........... :-)
He is a well known and respected vegetarian and animal welfare activist he was using his saved money from the corporate machine of southeastern for the uses of saving little fluffy bunnies
I have offered to assist with his fine by re opening my cosmetic testing factory on bunnies and monkeys
8)
Cosmetic testing on monkeys? Tsk tsk, I just spank mine.
Skin him alive and roll him in salt. Rich bastard should be named, shamed. Then shot.
End of.
He says while throwing another 50 pound note on t'fire........... :-)
He is a well known and respected vegetarian and animal welfare activist he was using his saved money from the corporate machine of southeastern for the uses of saving little fluffy bunnies
I have offered to assist with his fine by re opening my cosmetic testing factory on bunnies and monkeys
Stonegate is my local station. Whenever I travel to London there are ALWAYS ticket inspectors checking tickets on the train except on the return journey after 20.00. Amazed he got away with it so long.
I'm on the same line and equally amazed - he must have had a forged ticket or similar. I daresay that if anyone broke into this man's house and stole £40k of his possessions then he (and most others) would be looking for something rather stronger than the current punishment - but then ethics never came into the running of Southeastern.
Don't get this. WHy not charge him the full penalty fare every day, rather than what he evaded? If I dodge my fare I have to pay a penalty fare that's about five times what the cost of the ticket would be. That seems fair to me - charge him 200 grand, and then see if he wants to take it to court. If not, and he ponies up, then fair enough.
Some of this doesn't add up from what has been reported. I don't quite understand how having an Oyster card has helped him. I travel from Battle, three stops beyond Stonegate, and we have our tickets checked at least once each journey, morning and night. I assume he has too so if he hadn't had a ticket then he'd have had to have bought one on the train. It's perfectly okay to board without a ticket as you are able to purchase on board as ticket office could easily be busy when you arrive. Seeing as most trains are fast from High Brooms to London Bridge during rush hours you can't even say you got on at Orpington, for example, to reduce the price you pay. Interesting too that he paid back over 42k. A season ticket from Stonegate costs £4,500 a year so over five years, allowing for year on year price increases, he could have bought season tickets for say 21.5k. I assume they have calculated what he owed on him having made single, maybe return, daily journeys.
Personally, he's a scumbag. I hate people who are not prepared to pay their way, think they can get one over on the train company and us, the passengers, who suffer fare rises because of knobs like this. I'm glad he has had to repay this money but not that he remains anonymous. I think he should be made to wear a sign round his neck saying 'I'm the fare paying cheat' for a year and hopefully that will shame him into not doing it again. He's lucky his employers don't know, I don't a hedge fund company would want to employ someone so dishonest.
Some of this doesn't add up from what has been reported. I don't quite understand how having an Oyster card has helped him. I travel from Battle, three stops beyond Stonegate, and we have our tickets checked at least once each journey, morning and night. I assume he has too so if he hadn't had a ticket then he'd have had to have bought one on the train. It's perfectly okay to board without a ticket as you are able to purchase on board as ticket office could easily be busy when you arrive. Seeing as most trains are fast from High Brooms to London Bridge during rush hours you can't even say you got on at Orpington, for example, to reduce the price you pay. Interesting too that he paid back over 42k. A season ticket from Stonegate costs £4,500 a year so over five years, allowing for year on year price increases, he could have bought season tickets for say 21.5k. I assume they have calculated what he owed on him having made single, maybe return, daily journeys.
Personally, he's a scumbag. I hate people who are not prepared to pay their way, think they can get one over on the train company and us, the passengers, who suffer fare rises because of knobs like this. I'm glad he has had to repay this money but not that he remains anonymous. I think he should be made to wear a sign round his neck saying 'I'm the fare paying cheat' for a year and hopefully that will shame him into not doing it again. He's lucky his employers don't know, I don't a hedge fund company would want to employ someone so dishonest.
Hedge fund companies would probably see it as initiative, enterprise and financial prudence worthy of a bonus.
Skin him alive and roll him in salt. Rich bastard should be named, shamed. Then shot.
End of.
He says while throwing another 50 pound note on t'fire........... :-)
He is a well known and respected vegetarian and animal welfare activist he was using his saved money from the corporate machine of southeastern for the uses of saving little fluffy bunnies
I have offered to assist with his fine by re opening my cosmetic testing factory on bunnies and monkeys
8)
Cosmetic testing on monkeys? Tsk tsk, I just spank mine.
Comments
If the rail company had taken him to court surely two of the questions they would have had to field would have been 'Why didn't you check his ticket before he boarded the train at Stonegate?', and 'Why did it you take so long to find out?'
Could have been embarrassing.
It is wrong, but it is the way of the world. Private schools, private health, first class travel, expensive geographical residential areas, the list goes on. For those that have more money there are ways to 'buy' a better life. The upshot for those that have less money is that some of the surplus money provides for the services that the less wealthy enjoy. In this case that £40k+ could be used to refurbish a train which will make it more enjoyable for those that already pay for their tickets to travel.
I know members on here like to knock the rich, and especially those that work in banking, but I suspect that the business decision would be the same irrespective as to the level of wealth. Any business that turns down money to make a point needs a change of management. I don't think that fare dodgers would be any more inclined to stop if this chap was given a punishment that is realistic. Eighteen months in prison, maybe, but I suspect that the worst that would have happened would have been an extra fine, and chances are that it would have been less, in total, than what he paid anyway.
I would also suggest that the train company would make itself look silly if it had to admit that it has a route that costs over £8k a year and their processes are so slack that one individual could get away with not buying the appropriate ticket for five years.
I wonder if his clients will stick by him if/when his name gets out? Would you want a fraudster handling your money? Could be a Bernie Madoff who rips off everyone.
End of.
No ticket checks on peak-time trains, or at his local station, means he gets all the way into town unchallenged.
He keeps a Zone 1 travelcard (or a pay as you go) to get through the barriers in town at the minimum fare. The barriers don't know or care where he's come from.
Even a zone 3 station like Charlton often allows people to stroll in and out, not touching in and out. Why bother with a Zone 1-3 travelcard when a Zone 1 travelcard will do the job?
TBH I'm surprised that so many of you who have subsidised this blokes travels cost for years are happy for him to walk away with only paying what he should have done in the first place.
It's at best pragmatic of the train company to accept the payout. The money should have been paid already (and spent on refurbishing trains or whatever).
He is a well known and respected vegetarian and animal welfare activist he was using his saved money from the corporate machine of southeastern for the uses of saving little fluffy bunnies
I have offered to assist with his fine by re opening my cosmetic testing factory on bunnies and monkeys
8)
That's not a very nice thing to do nla.
To think, I used to quite like you ;-)
8)
You love me really
Personally, he's a scumbag. I hate people who are not prepared to pay their way, think they can get one over on the train company and us, the passengers, who suffer fare rises because of knobs like this. I'm glad he has had to repay this money but not that he remains anonymous. I think he should be made to wear a sign round his neck saying 'I'm the fare paying cheat' for a year and hopefully that will shame him into not doing it again. He's lucky his employers don't know, I don't a hedge fund company would want to employ someone so dishonest.