There Are Fraudsters

[sir.prize]

popping up everywhere. In this case it was over £45,000.

Is it right they can just pay up when caught and avoid prosecution?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27011497

[Graham-W]

Probably cheaper for the train company to settle out of court than pursue the matter.
I'm not saying it's right though. Setting an example may have stopped others doing it.

[emmie]

amazing at the sum involved, and by the way many of the stations have this tap in tap out machines, it doesn't mean that everyone will do it,
i only noticed one the other week when i walked past it, there are notices up about swiping your oyster card, but quite honestly i didn't see it at first,
so walked back to swipe my card, i wonder how much TFL loses on this

[Peter Pedant]

I think a lot of the time the victim just wants his money back

in which case the deal is fair enough

[youngmafbog]

Is it fraud?

I'm surprised there aren't program trailing the oyster cards to catch this. Its pretty easy to see a pattern of only ever taping out.

[jno]

according to the original newspaper report he'd actually have owed much less than that if he's bought a season ticket, but was charged on the basis of single fares - so he might actually have saved £20,000 by challenging it court but chose not to. A high price for anonymity

[Ken4155]

Had it gone to court, he may have been dealt with in a such a way so that the rain company did not receive full compensation.

[anotheoldgit]

Why was he not named and shamed?

[Gromit]

Are Hedge Fund managers so poorly paid? Or just basically dishonest?

[dunnitall]

We all know people can be dishonest for whatever reason, but when rail companies take staff away from stations and like one I know of leave it unattended for over 12 hours a day, then this sort of thing will happen (not that I agree with it). Years ago there were manned ticket offices all the time the station was open, staff on the platforms and barriers manned too. Cutting back on staffing and leaving people to pay by machine (if it's working) then there's going to be those who will just take a chance.