Conductor checks people's tickets (file picture) (Image: Getty) Last week, the chief magistrate for England and Wales ruled that prosecutions by rail companies against a British woman and five others were "unlawful" and declared them void. Sarah Cook told the BBC that she was threatened with a £500 fine and "jail time" after being caught in a storm over a £2 ticket. She explained that, in 2022, she boarded a train to Barnsley after being unable to buy a ticket at her departing destination or on the train.
She was fined £20 by British Transport Police, which she appealed. "The fine I appealed cause it was £20 which seemed a lot for a couple-of-pound journey and I never heard anything back", she told the BBC . function loadOvpScript(){let el=document.
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.. The incredible £13,600 train journey among the world's most lavish Avanti West Coast is one of the affected companies (Image: Getty) She told the national broadcaster: "That escalated to going to court.
Filling out a lot of forms, pleading guilty, pleading not guilty, the threat of a criminal record, the threat of a bigger fine, the threat of jail time, up to two years." In the end, she did have to pay up. She said: "After the threat of everything else, it was a ginormous £4".
After the chief magistrate for England and Wales ruled that unlawful prosecutions like Ms Cook's were null and void, around 74,000 other cases will be re-examined. As a result, fines could be cancelled and refunds given. Scroll down for the full list of companies involved.
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Holidaymakers plunged into travel chaos as Gatwick Airport station shut down [LATEST] Beautiful European town with amazing nightlife one train ride from UK [LATEST] Government urged to end rail strikes for good with this plan [LATEST] Greater Anglia trains are another company affected (Image: Getty) Trending Full list of rail companies involved: Arriva Rail Northern Avanti West Coast Greater Anglia Great Western Railway Merseyrail Northern Transpennine.
