"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
Hundreds of people have criminal records for travelling without paying
the fare. All you have failed to discover, is reports of the
circumstances, in the press.

There is a difference between travelling without a ticket as a deliberate
act of avoidance, which is clearly covered by common law and
probably specific acts of parliament, and having a valid ticket and boarding
the wrong train in error. Most UK law requires either proof of intention or
willful ignorance.
As I said earlier terms and conditions do not apply as that requires a
contract to be entered into and this requires a 'consideration' by both
parties which is normally a service or goods by one party and money on the
other. So we are clearly under law. If you look up any law they are always
detailed. The 10 commandments may say 'thou shall not commit murder' but the
UK law will be considerably longer with definitions of what 'murder' is.
Similarly there will not be a law just saying 'It is an offence to board a
train without a valid ticket'

I have tried finding the actual statute, so far I can only find the charge
has the words 'dishonesty in it, clearly an error in boarding the wrong
train does not form a dishonest act, merely a stupid one.

I will continue to search for the actual act, I have established that it is
definitely criminal and it is processed by the Transport Police, the terms
and conditions say that if you accept the decision of the company they will
not pass the matter over to the transport police. It is not in the power of
the company to prosecute, that will be the Crown Prosecution after a report
from the Transport Police.

The transport company have to take the stance that penalty fares are always
payable otherwise it leaves them open to false claims. I very much doubt
there has been a case where a person who has a valid ticket for a train
journey and a credible case for believing they have boarded the wrong train
ever being prosecuted. If only the rail company would hate to establish a
precedent by loosing. After all they really want to stop people avoiding
fares, not create an alternative income stream. No fines will stop people
boarding the wrong train.

Incidentally I have been on an RA flight where one passenger was on the
wrong plane, even RA was arranging to get him back to origin free of charge!