Northern pledges to target persistent fare dodgers on its services

Northern has pledged to crackdown on persistent fare dodgers on its services.

The rail company, which operates services through Harrogate and Knaresborough to Leeds and York, issued the warning and promised to prosecute those who dodge fares for historic cases.

The move comes as the firm set up its digital fraud investigations team in 2021 amid a surge in digital tickets after the covid pandemic.

Around 70% of tickets on Northerns services are bought online.

Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: 

“Fare evasion hasn’t been as simple as people just not buying a ticket for quite some time.

“There are people who try to outsmart the system through a complex process of fraudulent refund requests, delay repay claims and a process known as ‘short faring’.

“What those people might not realise is that, as with any electronic transaction, our systems are able to identify suspicious activity and bring it to the attention of our specialist investigators.”

The company said it investigated 108,681 reports of attempted fare evasion in the 2022-23 financial year.

It attended 301 court sittings during the same period, helping to secure 14,072 convictions.

Northern said the prosecutions help to recoup £2.9 million in lost revenue for the taxpayer.

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