My flatmate used my annual travelcard (paper ticket) on the
tube recently and got inspected by the mob that board the
tubes. As he didn't have a photocard & they decided it
wasn't his ticket - my ticket was confiscated and he is waiting
to hear about a fine for fraudulent use! They said they'd
send my ticket back to Southern Trains (the issuers) and I'd
have to contact them about getting it back!

Your flatmate appears to have committed fare evasion, contrary to the
Regulation of Railways Act 1889 s.5(3)(a). If you gave him the pass or
gave him permission to use it you will have breached Railway Byelaws
21(2) (transferring a ticket with intent that someone else use it) and
22(2) (transferring a ticket with intent that someone else avoid
payment). Your flatmate has also breached Byelaw 21(3), but it would be
unusual to proceed against him for this.

The offence your friend has committed is usually dealt with at
magistrates' court, and can lead to a fine of up to £2500 and/or three
months in prison. It is a recordable offence, so if convicted your
friend can be required by the police to attend a police station to have
his fingerprints and DNA taken - this will be entered on the national
DNA database and kept for future reference.

If the case is going to magistrates' court then the pass will be an
exhibit, and so cannot be returned to you until the case is over. Since
the pass is the property of the railway, they may well decide to
withdraw it anyway.

Unless your flatmate has dropped you in it or you have admitted
something, it would be unlikely that you would be prosecuted, but they
might try and obviously I don't know the details of the case so don't
bet on it. If you a prosecuted, expect a fine of anything up to £1000
at magistrates court.

You should really think yourself lucky. If your flatmate had been
stopped by the police in possession of something worth several hundred
pounds that they suspected belonged to someone else, it is quite likely
that he would have been arrested for the theft of the pass. Assuming
that he intended to give the pass back to you before it expired then he
would probably not be prosecuted, but he would have been arrested,
taken to a police station, interviewed and have his
DNA/fingerprints/photograph taken and retained. This is a very common
job for the British Transport Police.

Not getting prosecuted for this type of offence is really easy -- buy a
valid ticket for the whole of your journey on the railway and comply
with the terms and conditions set out in the byelaws. When they say
tickets are not transferable they really mean it!


Pete