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Brighton IT worker used forged tickets on trains for two years (From The Argus)
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Brighton IT worker used forged tickets on trains for two years
11:00am Thursday 13th August 2009
A commuter used a forged ticket to travel by train from Sussex to work in London for more than two years.
Jonathan Moore, 27, used his computer skills to make a fake three-monthly ticket for his daily journey between Hove and London - allowing himself to save more than £12,000 in fares.
But Moore was caught when a sharp-eyed ticket inspector realised his ticket was a forgery during a routine inspection on board a train.
At Brighton Magistrates’ Court Moore admitted making 74 forged travel tickets, fraud and possessing 11 forged tickets.
The court was told Moore evaded paying his fare between Hove and London from July 2006 until November last year when he was caught.
Moore's ticket, which he kept in a plastic wallet, was shown to a ticket inspector during his journey home from work.
The member of staff noticed the colour appeared different from normal and a further check revealed the ticket was a forgery.
Moore is believed to have used a fake ticket each day for more than two years, saving himself about £333 a month.
The total fares he escaped paying add up to £12,472.
Magistrates sent Moore to Lewes Crown Court to be sentenced.
Moore, of Goldstone Villas, Hove, who has no previous convictions, was released on bail before he is sentenced.
Detective Constable Rob Cager, the investigating officer from the British Transport Police, said: "When arrested, Moore was found in possession of forged rail tickets dating back to 2006, while a search of his computer uncovered the designs he had produced for them.
“The simple fact is that he abused his skills as an IT consultant to produce forged tickets, effectively allowing him to enjoy free travel on the railways to the tune of more than £12,000.
“We will continue to work closely with the rail companies to ensure that those who seek to make financial gain in this way are brought to justice.”
Reports of passengers using forged tickets is rare in Sussex with only three cases coming to light in the past two years.
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Your Say YourArgus
Karswell, Preston Park says...
11:42am Thu 13 Aug 09
RickH, Hove says...
11:47am Thu 13 Aug 09
Karswell wrote:Exactly - my annual Portslade to London is £3400 and the Southern ssite shows a monthly costing £314 (to Victoria) to £390 (to All Zones Travel Card). I only got O-Level Maths but even that tells me that £14K is wide of the mark!
The maths doesn't add up.........where do they get 12 grand from?
puddingandpi, Brighton says...
11:53am Thu 13 Aug 09
Train tickets are a complete rip off. You pay through the nose for the privilege of travelling in conditions which are illegal for animals & then the train companies put the price up so you end up paying even more.
Well done!
rudechris, Hove says...
12:03pm Thu 13 Aug 09
I do the same journey every day and pay £340 a month for an appaling service. He should be given a medal and Southern should be the ones in court!
Hope you dont get sent down mate, good while it lasted i suppose.
Osama bin there, Brighton says...
12:05pm Thu 13 Aug 09
Filthy overcrowded trains. Total disgrace. You don't see this anywhere else in western europe, where train travel is a pleasure, not an ordeal. And it's cheaper than the UK just about everywhere else.
He should counter-sue the train company for not providing a proper service!
Frank Booth, Brighton says...
12:08pm Thu 13 Aug 09
geno, says...
12:10pm Thu 13 Aug 09
Would you repeatedly pay for something that did not work? Me neither.
Randsta, says...
12:18pm Thu 13 Aug 09
seagullsovergrimsby, Crap Town says...
12:18pm Thu 13 Aug 09
dazza68, Preston Park says...
12:23pm Thu 13 Aug 09
Big_Mack, Hove says...
12:30pm Thu 13 Aug 09
However, what a plum for keeping his tickets dating back to 2006!!
Variable, Brighton says...
12:37pm Thu 13 Aug 09
dazza68, Preston Park says...
12:42pm Thu 13 Aug 09
... communting is a choice.
RickH, Hove says...
12:45pm Thu 13 Aug 09
Frank Booth wrote:Really - how about this for clarity "...used his computer skills to make a fake three-monthly ticket for his daily journey between Hove and London - allowing himself to save more than £12,000 in fares." and "...effectively allowing him to enjoy free travel...". Yes, 74 tickets, but backstory as to what happened to them nor an associated criminal charge related to selling them on and there is no mention of third parties being involved at all. Although your hypothesis may have foundation, there is no evidence in this report to support it and so one can only come to the conclusion that its lazy and/or inaccurate reporting (and a reaffirmation in my ability to read to acceptable standards!)
Karswell and RickH should read the story: it says that he was found guilty of forging 74 tickets. Even if he used monthly tickets for his daily journey (and we know that he was caught with a quarterly one), that would still leave 44 tickets unaccounted for. It doesn't say how much those were worth but those could easily make up the other £3,000 - particularly if he was making others for his mates.
Man With No Name, Brighton says...
12:54pm Thu 13 Aug 09
dazza68 wrote:Not really?
... funny how all the negative comments about rail operators and fares come out !! ... communting is a choice.
(I dont commute so I am not biased)
dazza68, Preston Park says...
1:10pm Thu 13 Aug 09
worthingite, worthing says...
1:21pm Thu 13 Aug 09
Wiggsy, Hove says...
1:35pm Thu 13 Aug 09
tyler durden, North Laine says...
2:02pm Thu 13 Aug 09
RickH wrote:Don't forget an annual ticket is the 12 months travel for the price of 10. I'm guessing they based it the price of 4 x 3 monthly tickets. Also as the fares got up each year you have to factor in how much a ticket cost during those previous years not just on current prices.
Karswell wrote: The maths doesn't add up.........where do they get 12 grand from?Exactly - my annual Portslade to London is £3400 and the Southern ssite shows a monthly costing £314 (to Victoria) to £390 (to All Zones Travel Card). I only got O-Level Maths but even that tells me that £14K is wide of the mark!
You could work out the correct amount but the time taken to do it isn't worth the effort.
smegbuster, Brighton says...
2:48pm Thu 13 Aug 09
dazza68 wrote:Commuting isn't always a choice.
... funny how all the negative comments about rail operators and fares come out !! ... communting is a choice.
I've chosen not to commute throughout my career, until the glut of companies outsourcing their IT to India meant fewer jobs for someone with my background. My choices were to either weekend-commute (and live away from my family during the week), or daily-commute to London, or stay out of work and lose my home.
I agree that rail season ticket prices are a rip-off, but that can't be used as justification for forgery.
caeos, sussex says...
3:26pm Thu 13 Aug 09
sw- deal=poor
jmarbella, london says...
3:46pm Thu 13 Aug 09
Jamie From London
smegbuster, Brighton says...
4:17pm Thu 13 Aug 09
jmarbella wrote:I've got a life, thanks... that's why I don't want to live in London!
Unemployment must be very high in Brighton as you are total bores. Get a life especially Dazza68. Moron Jamie From London
(P.S. ...aren't you being a bit harsh on yourself, signing yourself off as "Moron Jamie from London"?)
RickH, Hove says...
4:43pm Thu 13 Aug 09
tyler durden wrote:Lets put in this way - the most expensive monthly ticket Hove to Victoria (with an all zone travel card) is currently £390. So for him to have avoided paying £12,000 he would have had to have been doing it for 14000/390 = 30 months; he was charged with doing do for 28 months or 28x£390 or a total of £10920. So where is the short fall of nearly £2K? could easily be explained by the '74 tickets' but I suspect the sums simpley don't add up due to lazy and/or inaccurate reporting - I think we all agree he deserves everything that happens to him (and shame on those who advocate criminal behaviour because they believe the service is too expensive or not high enough quality!!) so its really an academic debate in the end ;)
RickH wrote:Don't forget an annual ticket is the 12 months travel for the price of 10. I'm guessing they based it the price of 4 x 3 monthly tickets. Also as the fares got up each year you have to factor in how much a ticket cost during those previous years not just on current prices. You could work out the correct amount but the time taken to do it isn't worth the effort.Karswell wrote: The maths doesn't add up.........where do they get 12 grand from?Exactly - my annual Portslade to London is £3400 and the Southern ssite shows a monthly costing £314 (to Victoria) to £390 (to All Zones Travel Card). I only got O-Level Maths but even that tells me that £14K is wide of the mark!
jmarbella, london says...
5:02pm Thu 13 Aug 09
Good luck to him. The service is terrible. You wouldn't pay for that sort of sub standard service in a restaurant.
John Steed, worthing says...
7:19pm Thu 13 Aug 09
Obviously his IT skills are up to scratch.
John Steed, worthing says...
7:22pm Thu 13 Aug 09
“We will continue to work closely with the rail companies to ensure that those who seek to make financial gain in this way are brought to justice.”
I think we can be sure that this does not include those who sell tickets but cannot provide a seat
davyboy, abingdon, oxon says...
7:23pm Thu 13 Aug 09
SuperMussels wrote:quite right. travel in europe IS much cheaper, but i believe that most of the rail companies are nationally run, not private. we do not deserve the railways we get, for the amount of money invested. we used to have the best, now we have the worst, and all because of privatisation and the need for profit. get it back to good old british rail, and kick out the jokers who run it now. we need regular, clean trains with room for everyone. commuting IS a choice, but some have hobsons choice. i wouldn't do it, but some do, and they get used to it. up here in oxford, FGW have just been shown to be the worst operator around, so southern are not the only ones.
Sorry, Is there a misprint in the report? £333 a month for a monthly ticket from Hove to London!!! OH MY GOD! now I know why I moved to Spain. I travel everyday by train from Barcelona to Tarragona which is similar distance and it costs me 50 euros per month and i always get a seat! I thought I was getting ripped off! Something is wrong with the British Rail system.
jo w, haywards heath says...
8:17pm Thu 13 Aug 09
meohmy, says...
8:48pm Thu 13 Aug 09
He should be aware of security - secure deleting, hiding files like that in "the cloud" while remembering to delete all reference to it on his computer.
The old bill are wise to peoples ways, you have to be ingenious and people tend to do the same thing
Henfield Hovite, Henfield says...
10:39pm Thu 13 Aug 09
. one rule for one.......
Henfield Hovite, Henfield says...
10:44pm Thu 13 Aug 09
danacoed, hove says...
10:01am Fri 14 Aug 09
Gazza, Sussex says...
11:26am Fri 14 Aug 09
Its not rocket science to scan and alter things on the computer I find at fault the ticket inspectors and the design of the ticket. I’ve heard of loads of people who don’t buy tickets and if challenge just says can I buy my ticket I was running late and did not have time to get my ticket. They should put a small ticket machine in all train compartments to stop this practise. No ticket = fine a large one
happylad, Preston Park says...
12:00pm Fri 14 Aug 09
danacoed wrote:Here Here !!
I travel to london everyday by train but from now on i will be driving my car so could all of you who think this thief was hard done by, please post your address so i can come round and drian your cars petrol tanks so i can fill my one up seems you wont have a problem with a little bit of stealing .....or would you?
I think my utility prices are a rip off - does that give me the right to 'bypass' my meters ??
If you dont want to pay the prices - dont use the service !!
Buying a ticket from Brighton to London does not guarantee you a seat - only to get you there.
When you think of what this line used to be like not that many years things have improved dramatically.
Try travelling on some Northern Services you will certainly no what cattle class is like then !!
JamboBrighton, Brighton says...
12:01pm Fri 14 Aug 09
danacoed wrote:However if you took it from a Shell Garage I wouldn't care, as much like Southern they are unaccountable corporate scum.
I travel to london everyday by train but from now on i will be driving my car so could all of you who think this thief was hard done by, please post your address so i can come round and drian your cars petrol tanks so i can fill my one up seems you wont have a problem with a little bit of stealing .....or would you?
It's not like the bloke was taking money out of your pocket, and don't roll out the 'I've paid for the service, so should he' claptrap you always hear on this site, it is a boring arguement and only highlights the fact that you are jealouis that you haven't got the balls and inventiveness to do something similar yourself. Fail.
danacoed, hove says...
12:15pm Fri 14 Aug 09
seems to me your just another state sponger as for as for balls i get up everyday and do a honest days work bet i pay more tax than you earn you sponger get a life you mug
JamboBrighton, Brighton says...
1:35pm Fri 14 Aug 09
x0b, Brighton says...
2:36pm Fri 14 Aug 09
Harry Callahan, Worthing says...
9:15pm Fri 14 Aug 09
Montster, Brighton says...
6:12pm Mon 17 Aug 09
happylad, Preston Park says...
9:40pm Mon 17 Aug 09
lee paul, Kemp Town says...
10:40am Wed 19 Aug 09
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SuperMussels, shoreham says...
11:41am Thu 13 Aug 09