This is the moment two young women allegedly tried to avoid paying for train tickets by claiming both their phones were out of battery and could not be charged.
The friends were stopped at the gates of Southampton Central station because they could not show valid tickets, despite claiming they had bought them on their phones.
South Western Railway revenue protection officer Spencer suggested to the first woman that she could login to her account on her friend’s phone to show her ticket.
However the passenger then told Spencer that she could not remember her username or password, and the other woman also claimed her phone was broken.
But when Spencer said their excuses appeared to be a ‘little bit odd’, the first woman became abusive – telling him to ‘shut up’ and asking: ‘What’s wrong with you?’
Spencer even offered to charge their phones for them and suggested they could go to a nearby British Transport Police station for help, but the women refused.
The duo then managed to enter the station through another entry gate as they attempted to travel to Portsmouth Harbour and even managed to board a train.
But they were caught by another inspector who kicked them off the train, before vanishing from the station – with the team unable to work out where they had gone.
A clip of the incident from Channel 5’s Fare Dodgers: At War With The Law was published by the Daily Mail today ahead of episode nine next Monday at 9pm.
Revenue protection officer Spencer speaks to the women at the Southampton Central gates
One of the women becomes abusive during the incident and tells the inspector to ‘shut up’
South Western Railway inspector Spencer says their excuses appear to be a ‘little bit odd’
The woman eventually leave before managing to get into the station via another entry point
The video began showing Spencer at the gates to Southampton Central, with the voiceover explaining SWR loses thousands of pounds at the station every week.
He tells the woman: ‘You alright ladies, where are you trying to get to?’ They reply ‘Portsmouth Harbour’ and he adds: ‘And you say you’ve already bought a ticket?’
The duo say they have, and Spencer adds: ‘So you’ve got a ticket on your phone already?’ The first woman says: ‘Yeah, but my phone is broke. It hasn’t charged.’
Spencer says: ‘So it won’t charge at all?’ and the woman replies: ‘No, not at all.’ The inspector tells them: ‘So you need to be able to show a ticket before you travel.’
When the woman insists ‘but I have bought one’, Spencer says: ‘So, do you want to come over and I can actually talk to you nicely?’ – but she refuses.
Spencer tells her: ‘So you’ve got a ticket on your phone. Can you not sign into your account on her phone?’ But she says: ‘My phone’s dead.’
Spencer then suggests: ‘But we can charge phones, that’s not a problem. So both of your phones aren’t charging?’ They say: ‘No.’
The inspector continues: ‘Can you not see that it’s a little bit odd that both of your phones won’t charge?’ But the woman says: ‘Oh, shut up. How I am meant to remember my passwords?’
Another episode shows a woman being confronted about £3,160.40 in unpaid fares at Ilford
A bemused Spencer says: ‘How are you supposed to remember your passwords?’ And the woman replies: ‘Do you think I’d like remember my usernames and my passwords?’
Spencer continues: ‘So you’ve got no way of contacting mum, dad, nothing like that, no?’ But the woman becomes more agitated, saying: ‘What’s wrong with you?’
The inspector then tells her: ‘Well you need a ticket to travel. There’s a BTP station just across the road. If you went over there and explained.’
The woman says: ‘Why would I want to speak to the police?’ But Spencer replies: ‘Why wouldn’t you want to speak to the police, if they can help you get home.’
The passenger says ‘I don’t like the police’, Spencer says ‘they could help you get home’, but she adds: ‘But I don’t want to talk to the police. Are you OK?’
Spencer says: ‘Am I OK? I’m fine, yes.’ The woman then swears, adding: ‘Clearly not, mate.’ He tells her: ‘You’re the one that’s having the issue.’ And she replies: ‘Yeah, I am having an issue.’
The inspector then adds: ‘I’m trying to help you. As it stands at the moment, you’re just going to get yourself ejected from the station. My advice would be don’t go through these [barriers] without a ticket.’
Following the incident, Spencer told the camera: ‘For me it was more the fact that they were rude to the ticket officer.
In a separate incident, a university law student cried and declared ‘my life is finished’ after being caught travelling without a rail ticket by an inspector at Clapham Junction in London
In another clip, a fare evading passenger (left) is confronted by investigators at Harold Wood station in east London after avoiding paying £1,650 in ticket costs over nearly 250 journeys
‘Fine to help them get home, I’m more than happy to help them. But all the while they’re going to start pushing through and being abusive? No chance.’
He then keeps an eye on the women, adding. ‘We stay this side of the platform barriers because they haven’t actually broken anything until they’ve come through the barriers. And when they come through, we can deal with them.’
However, the women manage to give Spencer the slip and push through the barriers on the other side of the station – before he finds the train they were going to get on.
He then speaks to the on-train guard Liliana who reveals she had already kicked them off the train when they could not provide a ticket. But the woman appear to have vanished and could not be found.
Spencer says: ‘They’re not here. Come on then. Everybody on. You can get caught up in stuff like that when you’re here and you end up with sometimes a wild goose chase.
‘Getting called from one side of the station to the other, and you think… they were abusive but at the same time, they’re kids’
Admitting defeat, Spencer resumes his shift on board the next SWR train to London Waterloo.
A passenger pushes through the gates at Kingston station in south west London without touching out before attacking British Transport Police officers while they try to apprehend him
A passenger is spoken to by investigators at London Waterloo station after only buying a ticket from Vauxhall, as he is finally caught after evading nearly £20,000 in ticket costs
The episode also features a major sting operation by 20 revenue protection officers at Vauxhall station in London.
This prompts an investigation into fraud going back seven months after a woman is stopped using a half-price ticket bought with a Jobcentre Plus discount card which she does not have.
Another inspector takes on tailgaters and the abuse of half-price child tickets at half term at Waterloo.
And two newly-trained recruits are shown on the Weymouth to London line, which is notorious for fare dodgers who hop on and off to avoid the guards and the revenue protection teams.
Two passengers who are known to them arrive and refuse to buy a ticket before they are asked to leave the train.
Industry body the Rail Delivery Group has estimated that fare dodging creates £350million to £400million in lost revenue each year.
Fare Dodgers: At War With The Law is on Channel 5 next Monday at 9pm
