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Rail firm hounded my family over £2 fine
Miranda Bryant29 Mar 2010
A commuter today told of his two-year legal dispute with South West Trains over an unpaid £2 fine.
Neil Warwick, 29, said his family was hounded by bailiffs and he had to attend court twice after he was issued with an unpaid fares notice in 2008.
Mr Warwick was fined on his way to work from Strawberry Hill, where he lived with his father, to Richmond after he forgot his season ticket. He tried to buy a ticket but the ticket machines were not working and the inspector would not accept his bank card, he said.
Mr Warwick, who works for an animation company, claimed he did not hear from SWT until a year later — after he had moved to Bristol — when his father called to say he had been threatened by bailiffs at his home in Strawberry Hill. Debt collectors said that if he did not pay them £600 they would pick the locks and take double the amount in goods. Mr Warwick said: “I went to the Citizens Advice Bureau and they said that it was illegal and that if it happened again to phone the police. My dad felt completely threatened.”
He went to Bristol magistrates' court to say that he had received no court correspondence but about four months later his father told him he had been threatened by bailiffs again. On 10 March he received a summons to Richmond-upon-Thames magistrates but could not get time off work to attend. He now faces a fine of £217.
Mr Warwick — who has a four-month-old son, Sol, with his girlfriend, Florence May Hyland, 28 — said the ordeal has cost him hundreds of pounds in travel from Bristol to London and three days off work. He said: “This has left us in a very hard situation money-wise.”
A spokeswoman for SWT said: “While it is unfortunate this case has been escalated to such an extent, it is our belief that it could have been resolved by the customer long before it reached this stage.
"Customers are given ample opportunity to settle unpaid fares notices. Only in cases where the customer has not made efforts to pay the fine within the timeframe given, and has not responded to subsequent written requests, do we pursue outstanding costs through the courts. Once a settlement has been agreed, this is pursued by the courts with no further involvement from South West Trains."
A spokesman for Her Majesty's Courts Service said: “This matter has not been brought to our attention previously. We would welcome details from Mr Warwick so we can look into it.”
Reader views (18)
Since the ticket barriers were installed at Waterloo, it is necessary to remove one's season ticket from it's wallet at least twice a day (4 times in my case as I travel on to London Bridge). It is very easy to forget to replace it by say putting it in one's jacket pocket. However the following day one gets caught by Revenue Protection. SWT have rules that state if you forget youtr ticket more than twice a year they can charge a £20 admin fee.
After paying over £3000 a year for my season ticket, I think it's unfair to have to pay £20 every time one forget's ones season ticket, a situation which SWT have made more likely through their actions. In the 4 years that I travelled prior to installation of the gates, I never forgot my season ticket once. However I am now forgetting it about once a month, so SWT are screwing another £240 pa out of me. It's a rip off, plain and simple.
- Another SWT customer, Hampshire, 27/08/2010 22:38
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These shysters are trying to lose the franchise (they paid more that 4 times the true worth of the company) the staff are rude and unpleasant and don't believe in an honest excuse, the head of revenue protection should stop hiding his face from the public and explain WHY they charge so much for (fares & fines) swt used show their managers in posters!! NOT NOW wonder why!!
- Ken H, Raynes Park, 29/03/2010 18:07
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Why would he be chased up if he had a season ticket - smells rather fishy to me. Whats wrong with protecting revenue. Should he be able to travel free and given the benefit of the doubt - of thats the case lets all travel for free!!
- Rob, portsmouth, 29/03/2010 16:24
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I was once unable to purchase a ticket for my journey into Waterloo due to an issue in the ticket office. At the time I traveled daily to Waterloo and the guy on the platform told me to pay at the other end. I boarded the train and joined a queue of people at Waterloo telling the revenue protection officer they had got on at Clapham etc and paying for their fair. I asked for a return to my station and because it was more that the one or two stops everybody else was claiming I was immediately penalty fared and unable to purchase the return. This was a very valuable lesson for me in that honesty is not the best policy when dealing with the SWT staff – remove their franchise at once !!!!
- Ian, London, 29/03/2010 16:21
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Speaking as someone who has worked in revenue protection, yes there are people who have avoided paying fares and even evaded paying fares. But I am sure all this could have been avoided by calling in at the ticket office and explaining that he had either left his ticket at home or had valid reason for travelling without a ticket on that occasion. I am sorry; its not rocket science, is it? For £2.00 was it all really worth it?
A little co-operation would have been worth quite a lot on this occasion. It seems that the magistrates also did not choose to believe the cries of the accused because they levied a fine on top of the money owing to South West Trains.
Its got nothing to do with the officious manner in which South West Trains conduct their business and everything to do with just using a bit of common sense and making some firm arrangements to pay what is owed?
Taking care of business would have made this a bit of a non story. When someone has done all they can and they still get prosecuted, thats the time to get the tissues out. This occasion is not one of them.
- Donald Hedges, Southampton, United Kingdom, 29/03/2010 16:07
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I'll never forget the very rude Ticket Inspector who fined me on the spot £10.00 for having the wrong words on my Season Ticket,a mistake made by the ticket office,same old SWT.
- Davey_Bouy, Chertsey, 29/03/2010 16:07
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"An unpaid fare notice is were a customer agrees to pay a train operating company the value of their ticket within 10 working days."
My apologies, I actually ment to say 10 days and not '10 working days' as orginally stated.
- Anon, London, 29/03/2010 15:52
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This is so typical of large companies, especially the utilities, of bullying so called middle class people ie wage earners.They are terrified of going for the better off as they have money to employ lawyers, so they go for what they think is easy prey. Shame on SWT.
- Jose Luis, London SW18, 29/03/2010 15:49
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Nowhere in this non-story is there any description of what he did to resolve the situation. Presumably he just sat on his backside and did nothing. Anon and Mike of London are quite right. You created the problem through what appears to have been your own inaction mate now suffer the consequences
- John Weston, Kent, 29/03/2010 15:36
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It's not a £2 fine, it's a £2 UNPAID FARE!
If this guy had bothered to read the document he was given on the train, he could have had the unpaid fares notice cancelled!
There is a ticket office at Strawberry Hill - why not use this if the ticket machines were faulty?
He should be content that, instead of his Dad having to find £600, he only has to pay £217! All because he couldn't be bothered to deal with a piece of paperwork.
- Paul Harley, Newport, 29/03/2010 15:24
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Its a disgrace that Train Companies have to resort to bullying aluable customers.They should be stripped of their Franchise.
- Christian Moran, Wimbledon, 29/03/2010 14:17
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Whilst I sympathy for the family, the rules of an unpaid fare notice are as follows....
An unpaid fare notice is were a customer agrees to pay a train operating company the value of their ticket within 10 working days.
However, if they are able to prove that they already have a ticket (in this case a season ticket) they do not have to pay the cost of the fare.
Had this passenger done this, they would not of got themselves in to this mess.
- Anon, London, 29/03/2010 14:16
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If the guy had a valid season ticket he could have paid for the ticket and reclaimed the amount from a ticket office upon displaying proof. The £2 promise to pay slip was clearly ignored and then escalated into a court case.
Do you get on a plane, bus or in a taxi without paying? this should act as a lesson to the many thousand fare evaders across the country who will only pay when forced to. At least it shows that the dishonest people do get caught every now and then
- Mike, London, 29/03/2010 14:12
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This is the same SWT who, unable to raise my season ticket price because inflation was negative last year, simply added £20 per week to my car park charge, raising it from £35 to £55. I realise its a business, but SWT is simply ripping off people and bullying commuters. Nationalise the lot of them.
- Ian, London, 29/03/2010 13:53
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It seems ticket inspecters are abloody minded lot,
Perhaps the sooner they all go on strike the better
- Richard Edmunds, Rayleigh UK, 29/03/2010 13:24
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The SWT is stripped of its Franchise the better.
- Jonathon, Richmond, 29/03/2010 12:51
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If he had a season ticket, at great expense, then he had paid his fare. He was a long term valuable customer of this travel company and demanding extra money, with menaces, was possibly fraudulent, and certainly unacceptable. he should have been asked for ID and dealt with as a valued customer.
Did the travel company care enough to deal with it themselves? I think this type of corporate behavior is building up resentment.People are afraid to travel on trains because of fare uncertainties and officious staff.
But trains are full so they treat customers like sacks of coal.
- Terence Wright, Bow, 29/03/2010 12:20
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It could have been resolved even quicklier if SWT had acted reasonably at the time of the initial incident and given its customer the benefit of the doubt. Are the rail companies so paranoid about a non-existent explosion of fare-dodgers? Suggestion for more efficient revenue-protection: improve service.
- Bloke, Lambeth, 29/03/2010 12:19
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