Woman slapped with £460 fine and criminal record after taking tiny discount

Cerys Piper, 23, was taken to court and slapped with a £462.80 fine after using a railcard discount on an ‘anytime day return’ ticket – and now has a criminal record

A woman has be fined £462.80 and been given a criminal record after using her railcard discount on an ‘anytime day return’ ticket.

Cerys Piper, a 23 year old from Westhoughton, Greater Manchester, faced an unexpected ordeal last month when she travelled from Daisy Hill station to her sales agent job in Wigan. She had purchased an ‘anytime day return’ ticket from the station’s ticket office, using her 16-25 railcard to get a £1.60 discount on the £4.80 ticket.

However, once she boarded the train, she was informed that her ticket was invalid. The discount she used is not applicable to ‘anytime’ or ‘off-peak’ tickets under the value of £12 before 10am. Following her journey on September 12, 2023, Cerys now faces a court judgment against her for £462.80.

Speaking to The Bolton News, Cerys recounted: “I got on the train and then I was told my ticket was invalid and that I couldn’t use it.” Cerys wasn’t aware she needed to attend Manchester Magistrates’ Court until her local paper contacted her about it. Currently, she is repaying the fine to her mum, who kindly helped her with the cost.

Cerys feels she has been treated ‘horrifically’ by the rail company. She said: “It’s just such sourness now getting on the train, because I used to love it, and it is kind of therapeutic. It shows you really do mean nothing to them, at all, to do that, but it is what it is.”

On Northern’s own mobile app, tickets specifically purchased for trains departing before 10am do not offer a railcard discount. However, if you’re looking for a ticket on a train leaving after 10am, there’s still the option to purchase an ‘anytime’ ticket with a railcard discount even if the cost is under £12, which would make it invalid before 10am with a 16-25 or 26-30 railcard.

This restriction isn’t mentioned when buying the ticket. According to Northern’s app, the ticket is valid to ‘travel any time of day’.

Those who opt to read the ticket’s restrictions only see a message describing it as a ‘flexible ticket with no time restrictions on when you can travel’ and that ‘normal railcard and child discounts are available’. Adding to the confusion, the 10am restriction doesn’t apply in July and August for those with a 16-25 railcard.

One individual who was tripped up by this distinction is Sam Williamson, 22. Sam, a resident of Charlesworth, Derbyshire, booked a ticket from Broadbottom to Manchester on Thursday, September 5, as part of a larger journey to London from Manchester — for which he already had a ticket.

Not seeing a railcard discount available for the journey, Sam assumed the app had malfunctioned and found an ‘anytime’ ticket listed under a later train journey, with a railcard discount available, he said. He purchased the ticket, but discovered on board the train that he’d violated the 10am rule which wasn’t in effect just days earlier.

On the train, Sam claims he offered to pay for a new ticket, but was told he couldn’t. Northern has since sent him a letter threatening prosecution. He explained: “I go on the app, I see that the immediate train I wanted to get on, the railcard discount does not seem to have applied. I basically scrolled down until I hit the cheapest one, which happened to be the 10.29[am].

“I’ll admit, it was a user error on my part, I was obviously in violation of these railcard Ts&Cs, but it feels anti-consumer in my books. It feels like it’s designed to catch you out, and it does not make it particularly clear on the app why railcard discounts are not available.

“As we all know, the Northern app does have its moments sometimes. When you’re kind of in a rush and you’ve got another journey you need to make, you just assume it’s the simplest solution and it’s the app playing up not that it’s this particular rule.”

Those who have been successfully prosecuted by Northern for this infraction have been accused of breaching the Regulation of Railways Act 1889. This law, which predates the invention of railcards by 85 years and smartphones by 120 years, specifically states those who travel without having paid their fare ‘and with intent to avoid payment thereof’ could face a fine or even imprisonment.

Moreover, the National Rail Conditions of Travel stipulate that passengers using a time-restricted ticket that is correctly dated but not valid for the service they are travelling on should only be charged the difference between the fare they have paid and the lowest price ticket for the train they are on.

The Bolton News queried Northern rail about whether Cerys’ criminal conviction could be overturned, what criteria are used when deciding to prosecute, and why she wasn’t given the chance to pay the fare difference. Questions were also raised about why Northern advertises ‘anytime’ tickets as being valid to ‘travel any time of day’, even when a railcard discount is applied.

A spokesperson for Northern responded: “As with all train operators across the UK, everyone has a duty to buy a valid ticket or obtain a ‘promise to pay’ voucher before they board the train and be able to present it to the conductor or revenue protection officer during a ticket inspection. The overwhelming majority of our customers upwards of 96 per cent — do just that.”

Northern revealed that it is in touch with Samuel Williamson and stated it would be ‘inappropriate to comment further at this stage’.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Ticketing has become far too complicated, which is why we have committed to simplifying it for customers, as part of the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation. We expect Northern to ensure their policy on ticketing is clear and fair for passengers at all times and have instructed the operator to review the details of these cases urgently.”