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Metro fare dodgers are paying much stiffer penalties for failing to buy a ticket, with court fines and costs rising to an average of £123 per offender in the last eight months. Figures calculated for the first time show that magistrates are coming down harder on people who ride the Metro without tickets, and, when caught by the ticket inspectors, fail to pay the £20 penalty fare. The average fine for fare evasion, including the court costs, currently stands at £123 per person – an increase of almost £20 on last year’s average - while the more persistent cheats are landed with fines of up to £500. Since April, Nexus, the Metro operator, has taken 3,090 people to court for fare evasion, netting £198,850 in fines and £182,000 in costs. All those who are prosecuted for Metro fare evasion end up with a criminal record and are named and shamed on posters displayed prominently on the system throughout Tyneside and Wearside. Director of Metro, Mick Carbro, said: “We are determined win the battle against the cheats and our recent success suggests that the message is getting through that there really is no hiding place anymore. “Magistrates are quite rightly tough on those who fail to pay the £20 penalty fare, and with such hefty fines being handed down to the fare evaders they must surely realise that it makes no sense not to buy a ticket. “With more and more people choosing to use Metro there is just a small minority who seem to think they can get away without buying a ticket, but they can’t, and those who are caught are being hit hard in the pocket. It’s the one Christmas present they don’t want.” Nexus has driven a million fraudsters off the system in a 12 month period, with the number of fraudulent journeys down from 3.1 million in the year to March 2005 to 2.1 million in the year to March 2006. With nearly 36 million passengers journeys on Metro over the last year this demonstrates that fare dodging is low for what is an ‘open’ system, without automated barriers. Nexus has a pro-active anti-fraud strategy in place to combat fare evasion on the Metro network. This includes high-profile and frequent barrier checks at all Metro stations and on board Metro trains across the system. Name and shame posters are displayed prominently across the Metro network to expose all those who are taken to court and successfully prosecuted for non-payment of penalty fares. There are now increased police patrols on Metro with officers capable of issuing penalty fare notices on the spot and this is backed up by Nexus ‘Travel Support Officers (TSOs), who patrol trains during the day and in the evenings. It is estimated that fare evasion costs Nexus up to £1m a year in lost revenue. The increase of the standard penalty fare notice from £10 to £20 on May 3 last year has played a major part in discouraging people to board trains without tickets. The penalty fare increase was introduced nationally after it was argued that £10 just wasn’t enough to dissuade people from fare dodging - and, as predicted by Nexus, the new fine is hitting the fraudsters where it hurts.
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