Tens of thousands of fare dodgers are travelling for free on the Transport for London network using a contactless bank card scam uncovered in a new documentary.
Passengers are avoiding paying for journeys by touching in on station exit gates with cards that have been declined for payment or otherwise blocked.
The exit gates are opening for them but no payment is taken from the card because it is not able to be charged, meaning the travellers can get on services for free.
The latest episode of Channel 5‘s hit series ‘Fare Dodgers: At War With The Law’ has revealed an estimated 26,000 cards are being used in such a way each year.
Today, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal a clip of one Elizabeth line passenger allegedly being caught in the act at Hayes and Harlington station in West London.
The man was confronted by TfL investigators after tracking software which monitors such fraudulent behaviour suggested he had racked up £2,334.90 in unpaid fares.
A head office investigations team work alongside 500 frontline revenue protection staff to use the sophisticated tracking system to highlight any serial fare evaders.
The latest episode of the show, which airs next Monday at 9pm, shows the team on the trail of the man who is marked as exiting Hayes and Harlington each morning.
The passenger is approached by TfL investigators Yinks and Maryla at Hayes and Harlington
The man is taken into a room at the railway station to be questioned about his fraudulent travel
Tracking software suggested the man had racked up £2,334.90 in unpaid fares on TfL services
The man (not pictured) was allegedly touching in on the exit gate and avoiding paying a fare
The system only records his exit taps at the station which are normally just before 7am, but the investigators believe this is where he is in fact starting his journey.
They establish that the man is using a rogue bank card to enter the station through an exit barrier, rather than an entry gate, and identify him using station CCTV.
TfL investigators Yinks and Maryla check the exact gate used by the card and head to the station to catch him – initially having two false alarms when they stop two people who look like the man, but have touched in correctly.
Eventually they stop a person whom they believe to be the correct man, and Yinks tells him: ‘TfL operations, good morning, can I please see your card?’
The man displays his bank card, and Yinks says: ‘What’s wrong with this card, it’s not reading? Do you have any other bank card that you use? You don’t have another card.’
The passenger says: ‘Can I go?’ But Yinks tells him: ‘No, not yet.’
Yinks shows him a CCTV image, and asks the man: ‘Do you want to say to me that is you or not?’
When the man says it is him, Yinks says: ‘That’s you, right? That’s good, can I speak with you?’
In another incident, two women allegedly tried to avoid paying for tickets at Southampton Central station by claiming both their phones were out of battery and could not be charged
Another episode shows a woman being confronted about £3,160.40 in unpaid fares at Ilford
The team then take the man into a private room as they aim to get hold of the card that the system has been tracking to ensure a successful prosecution.
Yinks says: ‘Just to let you know, I’m going to be interviewing you. The reason why we stop you now is because we believe you have been travelling on the card and you have not been paying your fares properly. Can I have that card?’
The man complies and hands over the card, confirming that it is his.
Yinks continues: ‘I’m going to read this as well now and confirm that this is the card that I’m looking for, OK? Just to confirm, the card that you are holding, it’s you that we are looking for, and you’ve confirmed to me that’s you in the picture?’
The man again confirms it is him, and Yinks says: ‘Thanks so much. Do you have an ID on you at all? Do you know why I’ve stopped you today?’
He continues: ‘You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something you may later rely on in court.’
‘Have you been using this card in this manner as a bank card… to pay TfL for all those journeys you have made?’
When the man confirms he has, Yinks asks: ‘How did you come about to know that you need to do that? Maybe somebody told you, maybe you tried it one day and it worked?’
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
The man confesses that he saw someone try the fraud and they told him how to do it himself.
Yinks continues: ‘So how long have you been doing that? Is it one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, one month, six months?’
The man claims it is just one week, but Yinks tells him: ‘A week? I put it to you that you are not actually telling the truth because you’ve been travelling from Hayes and Harlington for six months now.’
The man says: ‘You’ve got my details, yeah – can I go now?’
Yinks says ‘No, not yet please.’
His colleague Maryla adds: ‘Can I just say something? It would be better for you, OK, to finish this.’
The man says: ‘If I’m late… I had already one warning.’
But Maryla tells him: ‘So then you need to explain to your employer what happened because you are under investigation.’
Yinks then asks: ‘Do you agree that you are responsible for £2,334.90?’
The man replies ‘yes’ – and when he is asked for ‘the reason for your doing that’, he says: ‘Financial reason.’
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 man is then asked to write his name, date and signature and is then allowed to leave.
Maryla tells the camera: ‘We gave him something to think about. I think now he’s going to spread the word to other people, don’t do this because you might be in trouble.
‘Many people are struggling at the moment with money, with financial parts of our lives, and I can believe that that could be the situation for him.
‘But at the end of the day, we are not a charity, so we need to get the money back and pay for our services.’
After the man walks away, the two investigators give each other a high five, with Yinks saying: ‘It was a very good one.’
The case against the customer is currently with TfL prosecutors, according to producers.
Fare evasion is now costing TfL about £190million a year, after the amount lost rose by almost 50 per cent from two years ago – partially due to people avoiding fares on the Elizabeth line, which opened in 2022.
The crime has become a hotly debated issue in recent months while the Channel 5 series has aired, after a series of high-profile cases in which passengers have faced prosecution over small amounts of money.
Industry body the Rail Delivery Group has estimated that fare dodging creates £350million to £400million in lost revenue each year.
And former Conservative leadership contender Robert Jenrick highlighted the issue in May when he posted a video on social media in which he confronted people who forced their way through the ticket barriers at Stratford station in London.
Fare Dodgers: At War With The Law continues on Channel 5 next Monday at 9pm
