Fare dodgers who have been fined for riding on Northern Trains without a ticket might have their fines quashed after a court found a flaw in thousands of convictions.
The BBC has reported that two years ago, Sarah Cook caught a train at Wombwell Station, just outside her pet shop in South Yorkshire, to travel one stop to Barnsley.
“I tried to buy a ticket on the platform and the machine wouldn’t accept my bank card,” she told the BBC.
“I thought: ‘It doesn’t matter, the train is here, I’ll buy one on the train.’”
She could not see a guard on the train and when she reached the station, everyone’s tickets were being scanned.
When she tried to buy a ticket, costing only £4, she was told it was “too late”. So she was fined.
She paid a penalty fare of £20 but a year later received a letter telling her she was being fined £500.
“That escalated to going to court,” she told the BBC.
“Filling out a lot of forms, pleading guilty, pleading not guilty, the threat of a criminal record, the threat of a bigger (penalty fare), the threat of jail time, up to two years.”
In the end, she did have to pay out.
“After the threat of everything else, it was a ginormous £4,” she said.
But last week, a ruling by the chief magistrate for England and Wales found the prosecutions by rail companies against Ms Cook and five other people were “unlawful” – and declared them void.
As a result, some 74,000 will have to be re-examined. If rail companies are found to have acted unlawfully, the prosecutions could be quashed and fines and costs refunded.
The ruling applies to prosecutions for alleged fare evasion made by several rail companies, including Northern, which serves Congleton, Sandbach and Holmes Chapel.
The prosecutions took place between 2018 and 2023, and one of the key issues is that they used a single justice procedure. Under this procedure, a case is dealt with by a single magistrate and a legal adviser behind closed doors.
They were introduced in 2015 as a speedier way to prosecute “minor” criminal offences. The following year, rail companies were allowed to start using the single justice procedure to prosecute people who they claimed had dodged fares.
However, rail companies used the procedure to prosecute offences listed in the Regulation of Railways Act 1889, which they are not allowed to do.
Rail companies can only use certain by-laws to pursue people they claim have not paid a rail fare – not the Regulation of Railways Act.
Those who were prosecuted for fare evasion through the single justice procedure for offences under the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 may be entitled to a refund for penalties they have paid, and need to go back and check their paperwork.
Nathan Seymour-Hyde, a partner at Reed Solicitors, told the BBC that the original court summons would contain the words “single justice procedure”. People should then see if there are any Regulation of Railways Act offences listed on there.
But he told the BBC: “Sometimes people just didn’t get that paperwork. They’ve moved addresses and then they eventually get chased by the court.”
People can also contact the court in which their case appeared and the rail company that prosecuted them, who should send the documents.
People may also be contacted by HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
Mr Seymour-Hyde told the BBC it was a “big mess to untangle”.
“There are costs, compensation and the (financial penalties) that were paid by each person that need to be returned.
“Many people will have moved address. So it’s going to be a very challenging process to just pinpoint where people are and then try to return the money to them,” he said.
Before all of that, the court services, the department for transport and the train companies have to agree to a list of all the cases that could potentially be declared void.
The department for transport said that the courts services will use court records and case information held by rail companies “to contact those affected over the coming weeks about the hearing and decision”.
• Anyone whose case was in the “Chronicle” and who can remember a rough date can email us – we may have the court register, which will include the legislation the charge was brought under. Email chronicleseries@aol.com.
