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Six of the UK’s railway operators have been identified as having unlawfully prosecuted passengers for fare evasion, as a judge ruled that up to 75,000 convictions were invalid.
Avanti West Coast, TransPennine Express, Great Western Railway and Merseyrail all used a scheme in which passengers were wrongfully prosecuted, the government said on Thursday. Train operators Northern and Greater Anglia had already been named.
Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring — who said last month that prosecutions under a contentious “fast track” justice procedure should never have been brought — on Thursday formally voided past convictions against passengers, saying it was “as though the proceedings never existed”.
He also warned that an additional group of individuals may also have been hauled before the courts improperly — a suggestion that may lead to further legal action against the train operators.
At a hearing in central London, the judge said train operating companies, HM Courts & Tribunals Service and the Department for Transport needed to trace the individuals affected in the weeks ahead so that fines of up to £500 could be refunded.
Goldspring was ruling on six “test cases” concerning passengers of Greater Anglia and Northern Trains who were prosecuted as fare evaders using the “single justice procedure”, or SJP.
Set up in 2015, the process allows certain low-level offences to be dealt with privately by magistrates working from paperwork, rather than through hearings in open court.
But the legislation did not permit rail companies to use the SJP to prosecute passengers, he ruled on Thursday, because the alleged offences were under the 1889 Regulation of Railways Act.
In addition, Goldspring said at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court hearing there was another category of passenger who might have been wrongly prosecuted.
These cases relate to individuals whom operators took to court after they had been through an out-of-court appeal process for a penalty fare, during which the passengers may have supplied self-incriminating evidence.
The judge said that issue was “live”, adding: “Further listings to look at that issue may be necessary.”
Railway companies acknowledged at a hearing last month that there could be a third category of passengers who were wrongly prosecuted and convicted: those who offered either to pay the fare or to provide their name and address when challenged by ticket inspectors.
The wrongful prosecutions are uncomfortable for the rail industry. Many train operators have reduced expenditure on so-called revenue protection in line with budget cuts and lower passenger numbers since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. But several, including Northern, have since launched high-profile crackdowns on fare evasion.
Tom Franklin, chief executive of the Magistrates’ Association, said following the ruling that there were “serious questions” that train operators “need to answer as to how this was allowed to happen”.
Northern and Greater Anglia both apologised for the errors in bringing prosecutions under the SJP. The other companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The total number of passengers wrongly prosecuted under the SJP has yet to be confirmed, and Goldspring said “the number seems to change every time I ask”. He had previously said up to 75,000 individuals were thought to be affected.
Alex Robertson, chief executive at the independent watchdog Transport Focus, called for rail companies and the courts to “quickly ensure that those affected have any fines refunded and convictions overturned”.
HM Courts and Tribunals Service will use a combination of court records and case information held by train companies to track down those wrongly convicted.
The transport department said: “While fare evasion should be tackled, the right process should be followed at all times.”
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