Overthinking? Short fare in Scotland

[johnsmith_1888]

I was short faring at a major Scottish station and could only collect tickets from the machine rather than a mobile ticket on the Soctrail app. I went to the barrier to show a staff member who asked a few questions about my route (I think it appeared suspicious) before allowing me through to collect my tickets.

My mind is now going crazy that they're going to check back CCTV and track me down via my details on the app or put my face up in all the ticket offices! I've short faired a few times over the years but have always had digital tickets so it's never really made me think about it.

I belive I'm overthinking but am seeking reassurance. If anything, I've been put off doing this for life!

 

[AlterEgo]

Scotland does not have a system of private prosecutions so you don't need to worry about that.

 

[johnsmith_1888]

Scotland does not have a system of private prosecutions so you don't need to worry about that.

Thanks for the reply. In what sense? What's to stop others from doing the same if there's no punishment?

 

[z444z]

My mind is now going crazy that they're going to check back CCTV and track me down via my details on the app or put my face up in all the ticket offices!

They aren’t going to do any of this. You’re fine.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Dec 2025 ==

Thanks for the reply. In what sense? What's to stop others from doing the same if there's no punishment?

There are punishments available if you’re actually caught, but you weren’t. You probably will be eventually if you continue, but the event you describe doesn’t sound like it’d increase your chances of getting caught at all.

 

[reb0118]

Scotland does not have a system of private prosecutions so you don't need to worry about that.

Correct. However, we have employed a significant number of Revenue Protection Officers [RPOs]. The situation as described may have panned out differently if an RPO had been involved. Seemingly the policy during a sting, which will become more common as RPO numbers increase, is to have a "tame" BTP Officer out of sight, but close at hand, for any passenger refusing the RPOs offer of an administrative penalty. The penalty currently being £30 per incident + the fare(s) avoided.

If the passenger refuses to engage then the BTP Officer will be called and will again to challenged to provide details in the presence of the officer, a further refusal will result in the matter being taken over by the BTP with the passenger being charged and reported for a RoRA 1889 offence. Financially it might be better to go down this route.

This, of course, is one extreme. The other being the gateline assistant merely shrugging his shoulders and letting the passenger through without question.

 

[N1]

The penalty currently being £30 per incident + the fare(s) avoided.

'Penalty' here being an admin charge on the Unpaid Fares Notice. If you refused to pay this in Scotland, but paid your outstanding fare, the only way Scotrail could try and recover the admin charge would be through the Civil courts, seems unlikely that a referral to the Procurator Fiscal will go anywhere under RoRA 1889. In England TOCs only charge an admin charge on UFNs after 21 days AFAIK.

 

[Egg Centric]

Financially it might be better to go down this route.

Interested in what circumstances that would be when it's only £30 penalty handled administratively if I understood you correctly?

 

[David M]

Curious as to what the major station was.

 

[reb0118]

Interested in what circumstances that would be when it's only £30 penalty handled administratively.....

£30 per incident, so that can soon add up. Whereas a "Fiscal Fine" can be as low as £50 - albeit a compensation order for losses can also be attached.

'Penalty' here being an admin charge on the Unpaid Fares Notice.

Paper copies of UFNs have been phased out on ScotRail. The RailPay App is now used, we don't get feedback on what happens after issue, but my understanding is that there is no admin charge if the fare is paid, even if a bit late. If not paid at all, seemingly, the debt is passed onto a private debt collection agency. If they are successful the railway gets the fare and the agency keeps the fees.

The £30 admin fee only comes into play when a passenger has been deliberately lying about where they boarded (short fareing) or similarly dishonest behaviour, and that after being given a few chances to come clean.

 

[Rab Smith]

Scotland is a very different Country regarding the law. We don't prosecute fare evasion and don't care about it as much as we should.

Where I do agree that to get a criminal record because you got on at a Station before you stated can be an absolute overkill as happens in England, the very lack of consequences leads to a very high number of fare evaders in Scotland.

Add to this our total inadequate laws in dealing with antisocial behaviour on trains. Staff members are regularly abused and physically attacked by a feral youth who use the railways as their own personal social club.

I think Scotrail need to be given more powers to ban repeat offenders of fare evasion and antisocial behaviour from their infrastructure, a move that would have the liberals foaming at the mouth.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

I think Scotrail need to be given more powers to ban repeat offenders of fare evasion and antisocial behaviour from their infrastructure, a move that would have the liberals foaming at the mouth.

Maybe I'm not as liberal as I thought I was - but my problem with this is that in the absence of private prosecutions in Scotland, how would Scotrail enforce these powers?

 

[Rab Smith]

Maybe I'm not as liberal as I thought I was - but my problem with this is that in the absence of private prosecutions in Scotland, how would Scotrail enforce these powers?

As things stand, they can't.

 

[AlterEgo]

Maybe I'm not as liberal as I thought I was - but my problem with this is that in the absence of private prosecutions in Scotland, how would Scotrail enforce these powers?

Call the police or civil recovery? Like every other business has to.

 

[eoff]

Scotland does not have a system of private prosecutions so you don't need to worry about that.

It does have a mechanism to allow private prosecutions but given there were only two in the 20th century you can count this out.

 

[island]

ScotRail could pursue in sheriff courts for the £30 administration fee, though I am not aware of this having been attempted to date.

 

[Huntergreed]

ScotRail could pursue in sheriff courts for the £30 administration fee, though I am not aware of this having been attempted to date.

There were a few posters I saw last year both at stations and on trains where ScotRail said they had prosecuted for varying amounts between £500 and £1,000, if I recall correctly.

I presume this is how they were able to do this, unless they settled the matters via out of court settlements.

 

[hexagon789]

There were a few posters I saw last year both at stations and on trains where ScotRail said they had prosecuted for varying amounts between £500 and £1,000, if I recall correctly.

I presume this is how they were able to do this, unless they settled the matters via out of court settlements.

ScotRail have had people prosecuted in court, the last time was in 2022 though.

I imagine it is only ever going to be for higher monetary value evasion though, unlike in England & Wales where with private prosecutions the amount evaded is sometimes only for a solitary ticket of relatively modest value.

 

[island]

I believe the above was in conjunction with the BTP.

 

[styles]

Scotland does not have a system of private prosecutions so you don't need to worry about that.

We do, via a Bill of Criminal Letters being granted by the High Court.

It's just notoriously difficult to succeed in this without truly exceptional circumstances, as a couple found out recently when they tried to initiate proceedings against a sitting Sheriff in a railway related case.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

We do, via a Bill of Criminal Letters being granted by the High Court.

It's just notoriously difficult to succeed in this without truly exceptional circumstances, as a couple found out recently when they tried to initiate proceedings against a sitting Sheriff in a railway related case.

Can we perhaps put this one to bed by inferring that absolute statements about private prosecutions not being possible in Scotland are prefixed with the words 'for most practical purposes...'?

 

[Sirius]

There were a few posters I saw last year both at stations and on trains where ScotRail said they had prosecuted for varying amounts between £500 and £1,000, if I recall correctly.

I presume this is how they were able to do this, unless they settled the matters via out of court settlements.

I vaguely remember some of these but the ones I saw were carefully crafted and didn’t outright say a prosecution took place. Season tickets being used to short fare through barriers.

I did always wonder what the mechanism for discovery was. Some related to periods of covid restrictions so were platforms that empty it was easy to verify through CCTV? Was the culprit dumb enough to routinely buy weekly tickets from a station much closer to their destination from a TVM?

Attachment: My own photo from a Scotrail train taken in December 2021. Text on poster reads:

“HOPPING OFF?

SKIPPING FARES?

Some people see fare dodging as childsplay. We see it as fraud. A customer purchased a season ticket from Livingston North to Haymarket over a 5 week period. Further investigation found they actually travelled from Bathgate and therefore had to pay £992.50”

 

[davp]

Some people see fare dodging as childsplay. We see it as fraud. A customer purchased a season ticket from Livingston North to Haymarket over a 5 week period. Further investigation found they actually travelled from Bathgate and therefore had to pay £992.50”

This always struck me as a weird example and Scotrail publicity was around people taking advantage of the Covid restrictions (no ticket checking taking place on train). There was another one where someone was travelling from Larbert to Edinburgh and buying from Edinburgh Park - that one makes much more sense in terms of potential money saved.

The difference in season prices between Livingston North/Edinburgh and Bathgate/Edinburgh was £1.80 per week in 2020. An anytime single from Bathgate to Edinburgh was £5.80 - that's some settlement at £992.50 for 5 weeks travel.

 

[Sirius]

I wonder if they meant Bellgrove. It did occur to me yesterday after I put it up that Bathgate (which has barriers - I don’t know if they were in use during Covid restrictions) to Livingston North is one stop.

 

[davp]

I wonder if they meant Bellgrove. It did occur to me yesterday after I put it up that Bathgate (which has barriers - I don’t know if they were in use during Covid restrictions) to Livingston North is one stop.

It's curious isn't it. A common dodge on this line pre barriers at Bathgate was to pay from the station you last called at as the check from Edinburgh usually happened early on so you were unlikely to have a problem on the return. Bellgrove would seem a much more worthwhile saving, but takes a little longer instead of going via Queen Street.

Dividing £992.50 by 25 (for 5 weeks travel) works out at exactly £39.70. Taking off the standard Scotrail admin fee of £30 leaves £9.70, which was the price of an anytime return from Livi North to Edinburgh in 2020. Probably coincidence.

 

[Chrism20]

Wasn't there one a while back as well with someone travelling from Bellshill or Shotts to Edinburgh and purchasing tickets from Slateford or Wester Hailes in order to short fare.

IIRC they were caught out as some audit of the TOD system flagged that tickets were being collected miles away from the originating station