City fund manager dodged fare for 5 years

[honeybee13]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2713784/Unmasked-City-high-flier-Jonathan-Burrows-dodged-43-000-rail-fares-paid-3-days.html

[firstclassx]

It's a reminder that an out of court settlement, (even for £43,000), is not a guarantee that you will escape prosecution.

 

Whilst the Train Operating Company (TOC) may agree not to commence criminal proceedings, the British Transport Police (or indeed any other force), along with the CPS are still entitled to bring their own charges should they feel it appropriate to do so.

 

Obviously this type of situation is uncommon, usually because TOCs have a lot more sense than to let someone of with serious fraud with an administrative settlement.

Southeastern should have prosecuted (criminal proceedings) under Fraud Act 2006 or at the very least multiple specimen counts of Regulation of Railways Act 1889, and either obtained a compensation order or commenced civil proceedings after his inevitable conviction to get the revenue back.

 

I suspect that this "gentleman" is going to need to read up on Section 11 - Fraud Act 2006, and for "evasion" amount as high as it was, prison is a real possibility.

[steampowered]

Wow. I'm surprised he got away with it for so long - there must be many others doing the same thing.

 

I'm also astounded that he got caught. I don't see how you can prove that someone had been dodging fares for 5 years? Must be hard to prove.

[firstclassx]

It's quite easy to catch him really.

 

This particular person would have originally been buying season tickets for his journey, all of which, are recorded in an electronic database,

with details of his address, ticket details, expiry dates etc.

 

What appears to have happened is that he has suddenly stopped purchasing a season ticket, which isn't all that unusual,

but has started using his Oyster card to touch out in London, but as he never touched in, he incurred a maximum fare every day,

which would flag up electronically after a week or so, because it is a very unusual situation.

 

His Oyster card was probably registered to his address, (which, incidentally, appears to be quite some way outside of the zonal area),

so all the TOC needed to do was see what other information was held for that name & address.

 

The TOC would have worked out that since he has stopped buying a season ticket,

he had suddenly started making a lot of journeys using Oyster (incurring the maximum fare).

 

Now any decent and observant revenue protection staff (back office type) would have identified this pattern as potentially fraudulent

and allocated resources to monitor this situation, initially covertly, by sending plain clothes inspectors to follow him

for a few days/weeks, even months, whilst building a case.

 

Southeastern, for whatever reason, failed to identify his journeys as suspicious, or if they did, they didn't or couldn't allocate the correct resources to deal with him

 

From what I can gather, have only been able to nail him, because an RPI got lucky in London,

and was presumably going to Penalty Fare him for failing to touch in,

but on questioning, the offender seems to have strung himself up or acted in such a way that Southeastern have been minded to investigate further,

resulting in a very large payment being made.

 

At my TOC, data (physical and electronic) is usually archived for 6 years before being destroyed, but with server storage

and the rise in electronic databases becoming easier and cheaper, you could potentially retain information for infinite amounts of time..

 

Section 29 of the Data Protection Act 1998 usually applies:

 

Personal data processed for any of the following purposes—

(a)the prevention or detection of crime,

(b)the apprehension or prosecution of offenders, or

 

(...)

 

are exempt from the first data protection principle

[rebel11]

It took them 5 years, sounds like the prosecution departments runs late, a bit like the trains.

[steampowered]

His Oyster card was probably registered to his address, (which, incidentally, appears to be quite some way outside of the zonal area), so all the TOC needed to do was see what other information was held for that name & address.

That's interesting, thanks for the explanation. It sounds like all the pieces fell into place. He should have used an unregistered PAYG oyster. I guess he thought he would never get caught.

[gigs]

The £1 million a year 44-year-old asset manager is thought to be the biggest fare dodger in history.

Teach a man to fish. . . he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, he can rob the world!

 

This particular person would have originally been buying season tickets for his journey, all of which, are recorded in an electronic database, with details of his address, ticket details, expiry dates etc.

 

What appears to have happened is that he has suddenly stopped purchasing a season ticket, which isn't all that unusual, but has started using his Oyster card to touch out in London, but as he never touched in, he incurred a maximum fare every day, which would flag up electronically after a week or so, because it is a very unusual situation.

 

So his dodge was quite simple unless I am mistaken.

 

You walk up to a barrier in London, tap out, get charged max fare, go about your business.

 

What the machine/database doesn't know is that the beginning of your journey was out of London costing much more than the £7.5 maximum fare.

 

^ I could be wrong in my assumptions here. His return journey raises questions as to how he got passed the same closed barriers if didn't want to tap-in on the way back.

 

Stephen Kandy, also from London, said: I just don't understand how this man got away with it for so long.

 

'I know the Hastings/Cannon Street train well - Stonegate is one of the stops on the way - and the ticket inspectors are always on the train, and check tickets after every stop.'

That's the curious part. That's the only way he could have gotten away with it for so long without any ticket inspectors catching him for an invalid ticket - for five whole years!

 

Plus don't the ticket barriers beep differently or not open requiring assistance when you tap out (without tapping in)?

[Nystagmite]

The ticket barriers do beep differently, yes.

 

Not London specifically, but I do find it rather odd that in some stations, the barriers are either open or don't actually exist.

[timbo58]

So he took 5 years 'saving' what he could clearly earn a great deal quicker.

What a tool.

There are still regular passengers out there that moan every time barriers are introduced somewhere or on the spot ticket checks are carried out and they fail to understand it isn't the people with dogs on bits of string and students who fare dodge -it's people just like them -otherwise respectable who probably vote tory and are in highly paid jobs.

 

Should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent.

[wazir]

TfLs Oyster admins have told me they only keep journey records for six weeks, not six years!

That was when I claimed for overcharging as they never told me my Oystercard has to be specifially registered to get discounted travel when going outside my zones, this isn't automatic. (My annual ticket is zones 1-3, so acts as a network railcard - 1/3 off rail travel after 10am workdays, weekends and b/hols in the rest of SE England). They did give me £15 as they had no records

[citizenB]

TfLs Oyster admins have told me they only keep journey records for six weeks, not six years!

That was when I claimed for overcharging as they never told me my Oystercard has to be specifially registered to get discounted travel when going outside my zones, this isn't automatic. (My annual ticket is zones 1-3, so acts as a network railcard - 1/3 off rail travel after 10am workdays, weekends and b/hols in the rest of SE England). They did give me £15 as they had no records

 

 

It is the same as with the banks, wazir, when they owe YOU money.. they keep records for a limited time.. when you owe THEM money, they keep them for ever !