Student forced to pay £562 for £2.20 train journey after she used wrong ticket
Parys Lanlehin was found guilty of using an invalid ticket on a train going in the wrong direction two years ago
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Your support makes all the difference.A university student has been fined £562 for a £2.20 train journey after she was caught using the wrong ticket.
Parys Lanlehin, a 20 year-old student at the University of Nottingham, was found to be using a return train ticket on the wrong day, going in the wrong direction, almost two years ago.
She was issued a £20 penalty fine on the Nottingham to Beeston train, which takes approximately five minutes to complete, but the fine was never paid.
Ms Lanlehin, who now lives in London, signed a declaration to say she was unaware of legal proceedings taking place in Nottingham at Stratford Magistrates Court.
She was found guilty of boarding a train without a valid ticket after she failed to attend the case at Nottingham Magistrates Court last week and was fined £300 in prosecution costs.
The student was also fined a £200 fee and £22 government surcharge, as well as the original £20 penalty.
Ms Lanlehin has been given two weeks to pay the fines and was issued a collection order, which could be passed on to bailiffs should the outstanding fines not be paid in full.
Earlier this year a passenger on a train in south Devon was fined almost £800 after he was caught without a ticket which would normally have cost him £2.70.
Train fare evasion costs the rail industry around £240m each year, according to Great Western Railway.
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