Concerned for friend using zip card

[CB12]

My friend (an adult) used his brother's 11-15 zip card for over two years and had the card taken off him by a TFL ticket person, he's worried saying he might go to prison, is that really likely to happen?

He's never had any sort of criminal record or anything like that, was just a student strapped for cash and needed to travel for uni, he understands he'll hsve

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Nov 2025 ==

My friend (an adult) used his brother's 11-15 zip card for over two years and had the card taken off him by a TFL ticket person, he's worried saying he might go to prison, is that really likely to happen?

He's never had any sort of criminal record or anything like that, was just a student strapped for cash and needed to travel for uni, I understand what he did was wrong and he'll have to pay a fine but can he actually go to prison for this?

 

[WesternLancer]

My friend (an adult) used his brother's 11-15 zip card for over two years and had the card taken off him by a TFL ticket person, he's worried saying he might go to prison, is that really likely to happen?

He's never had any sort of criminal record or anything like that, was just a student strapped for cash and needed to travel for uni, he understands he'll hsve

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Nov 2025 ==

No. Prison can be discounted. Magistrates court, fine and criminal record highly likely however. Plus paying back all the evaded fares too. TfL prosecute in vast majority of cases for this fare evasion. They take it seriously.

In the view of TfL being strapped for cash is not an acceptable excuse for ripping off the taxpayer and all the other people that pay the correct fare that funds transport in London.

 

[z444z]

It’s incredibly unlikely he’s going to prison - that doesn’t happen for fare evasion, more often in extreme cases usually involving industrial level fraud. Using a pass illegitimately, even for multiple years, isn’t going to be considered an extreme case.

TFL will send a verification letter to the address given asking for your side of the story, and unless you present compelling mitigation in line with TFL’s prosecutions policy, they will prosecute in the magistrates court resulting in a fine and a (fairly minor) criminal record, probably under the TFL byelaws. The charity Unlock is often recommended on this forum for people to read about all aspects of life following a criminal conviction. See the TFL prosecutions policy: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/revenue-enforcement-and-prosecutions-policy.pdf.

TFL either prosecute or issue a warning letter, and we only see warning letters issued on rare occasions where mitigating circumstances have been made clear, almost always via the use of a solicitor. A solicitor will cost roughly £400-£1000 at this stage, and it needs to be one specialising in fare evasion, if this is an option you’re considering someone can send the list of solicitors recommended by the forum.

 

[furlong]

Adult presumably means now over 18. They normally only prosecute for one offence, on the day he was caught, because that's easy and they usually have all the evidence they need for a straightforward conviction. But they normally invite people to admit to offending all the other times and assuming he does then the court can order that all the unpaid fares are paid back and the fine might be a bit higher if he's been doing it for two years. If he doesn't admit to it all, they may put in the effort to prosecute additional offences and if found guilty instead of having one criminal conviction he could end up with many more, so there's a big incentive to co-operate and in return get a lesser criminal record.