A friend recently travelled on an underground ticket that was zone 2
and 3 only, she travelled from brent cross through to kennington on
the northern line.

They just moved to the area so did not realise that you had to get a
zone 123 if you are travelling through zone 1, we thought you only
needed this if you got off the train at any station in zone 1.

Anyway she got stopped at the station at Oval and they took her
details and gave her a degrading telling off in front of the other
customers and were very rude in dealing with her, which is now what I
have come to expect of LU staff.

They read her rights to her and we recived a letter in the post from
LU saying that she has 10 days to write back and give her side of
story, so they can prepare a case to take to court. This seems a
little bit harsh when the entire tube system is littered with warnings
a £10 fine for travelling without a ticket and here she is travelling
with a ticket but not realise that she needed a different ticket.

She is now worried that she will go to court get a fine and a criminal
record.

Has anybody else come across and delt with this??? and have any advice
on what we should do or what could happen? do they treat LU fines like
a car fine or do you get a criminal record which seems a little over
the top???