On 19 Feb, 18:35, Paul Corfield wrote:
I was caught using someone elses freedom pass instead of my own oyster
on London Underground.

Which was a rather stupid thing to do if you don't mind me saying.

I can see it could possibly be an accident (your s.o. has freedom
pass, and you picked up the wrong wallet by mistake, and you didn't
look at the card (I assume it has a photo on)) -- this is especially
reasonable if you otherwise have a travelcard anyway! You should
hopefully get off with an informal warning if this was the case.

Certainly my fiancee and myself have unintentionally swapped oysters a
couple of times, and while they are unregistered, they could easilly
be registered and one have a travelcard while the other doesnt.

Yes - because the use of someone's freedom pass is not something that is
accidental or unintentioned. Penalty fares do not apply in these cases.
Misuse of a freedom pass is a serious issue in terms of fare evasion.

And its great news that TFL crack down on this kind of thing. It's
like the blue-badge abuse, it's a system designed to help the less
fortunate -- abusing it is worse than normal fare evasion in my book.
Aside from the fine/prison, I think offenders should be banned from
public transport for a few years.

One also wonders about the source of the freedom pass. Was it stolen
and the old dear just hadn't realised, or are they willing
collaberators in a crime? Would this person be investigated?