to make complaint about ticket inspector who detained child and took their phone?

Bloody hell this is awful Op. Especially as she is only 15! I had a jobsworth ticket man do exact same to me and I'm a grown woman in my 40s and he reduced me to tears! All because I actually got off a stop earlier (due to hurting my leg and wanting to walk a bit less with my suitcase).

Despite getting off at an earlier stop, my ticket was a pre-paid seasonal ticket and apparently I had to go to the EXACT stop specified. He shouted at me, refused to let me go through the barrier and my options were to get back on another train and go another stop along (with no lift access, in visible pain, chugging a suitcase) or pay the full fare again (despite it already being paid seasonally if you understand what I mean).

In the end I paid the fare as I was in a lot of pain and felt humiliated that I'd cried in front of him. I really, really wish I'd complained now.

This happening to your daughter at her age PLUS the additional creepy aspects of looking through her phone, nope, I say complain complain complain...

This. And I’m pretty sure a ticket inspector doesn’t have authority to take someone’s phone.They’re not the police.

but would it not have been a Young Persons ticket where proof of age is acceptable

No

child tickets and YP discounts are different things

So many TIs are small limitless bullies. Was ever thus.

Years ago I was on a train and hadn’t got a ticket - machine was broken and it was before days of camera phones.

When TI came through train I immediately explained and he said tough and demanded I pay for ticket and and fine. What would have been £10 turned into about £100. I simply didn’t have the money, but the TI didn’t care and was mean and aggressive.

chap say opposite me remonstrated with TI who basically told him not to get involved speaking up for a criminal. I was terribly upset and upshot was chap paid my ticket and fine.

To say TI was as apoplectic is an understatement of gigantic proportions. If he could have got away with throttling me I don’t doubt he would have.

as we left the train the chap remarked that some men will always bully young women if they think they’ll get away with it.

She made a mistake and offered to pay the shortfall, his behaviour was entirely disproportionate and inappropriate, at 15 they should have an appropriate adult with them and he had no right to detain her or look through her personal device. How on earth would Vinted prove she was 15?

Please report asap, he sounds like a pervert of the highest order. They have the ability to waive a fine when the person has made a genuine mistake and haven't done so before. He has broken so many rules here, only the police gave rights to detain and search property, she could have walked away at any time and he would've had to call the police.

Ok, first things first - legally a TI can stop children and 'hold' them while checking their age & confirming details like an address. It doesn't matter what box is ticked on the penalty notice - it's still valid. By travelling beyond their ticket an offence has been committed and a penalty notice is payable etc as per railway bylaw

@MothralovesGojira important distinction here. TI’s are permitted to confirm addresses but they may only ask for DOB. They cannot request the provision of proof of DOB. Therefore at the moment at which the OPs DD stated she was 15 any continued ‘hold[ing]’ or detention would be unlawful.

For her to have to get off on her own, buy another ticket and have to wait for the next train is ridiculous. It is 30p. She was perfectly prepared to pay at the other end- what difference did it honestly make whether she paid at the start or end of the journey? . Plans change . There used to be guards who could sell tickets on a train.

Depending on where you travel there are still guards who sell tickets & come through the train after every stop to check tickets of those who have got on.

Who knows what her friend/s would have done if she had decided not to travel further than her ticket or if she would have been at risk by getting off where originally planned?

Perhaps there should be a way to pay extra at the end of a journey if necessary but there currently isn't & there are penalties in place for those who travel without a ticket.

Random question but this wasn’t at Stansted was it by any chance? My daughter had a similar experience where the inspector on the gates was very forceful like this too, wanting to see her phone, threatening with police etc, even though she had a valid ticket.

Daily Mail sad face style?

So sad to read so many defenders of a young woman being intimidated like this.
So easy to see how SO many young people have MH problems when they have parents so quick to dismiss an incident like this.

I would be furious, but I know my husband would be apoplectic at our daughters property being taken from her and her privacy invaded.

I suppose the difference is we know our children, we respect them, we would BELIEVE them when they are upset and shaken.

So sad that so many posters would doubt their own child and think them liars so easily.
It explains so much though.

This is 100% a police matter and a formal complaint matter.
I would go so far as to be publicising this with the media.

No, he isn't allowed to do this. Even the police need something like reasonable suspicion that you are a terrorist/threat to immediate safety to do this (think it's PACE)

Wtaf!

Even the actual police can't do what he did.

I'd be stopping at nothing until that man was fired and possibly dragged up on any criminal charge I could have him on.

I agree and I’d have taken the punishment (although I think it should have been clearer at the point I tapped in) but the fact is I had gone through a barrier to get in and tapped in so there was a clear intent to pay. There was a barrier at the other end so I could not have got out without it. Barriers act as the control in this situation. I appreciate not all stations have them but where they do exist they are the control to ensure people pay the correct fare. Of course if someone has zero ticket then that is completely different (or shown a clear intent to deceive) and they should take the punishment . In the OPs case, there was a ticket. Her DD made a reasonable decision to stay with her friends. She offered to pay the difference at the other end. Her friends all proved they were 15. There was absolutely no evidence of an attempt to deceive. The heavy handed response was disproportionate to the offence.

Hardly treated her like an adult by taking her phone and looking through her apps! Super odd you’re defending that behaviour

Definitely complain. Ticket inspectors are the biggest jobsworths I have ever encountered. I have seen them shout at people until they have been in tears and one barrier inspector grabbed my 10 year old when I swiped her through the barrier as he thought it wasnt using her ticket. I don't use trains anymore. They are not worth the hassle.

@Drfosters
In a perfect world everyone would get this response but do you know how much the service operators are losing every month through people deliberately avoiding fares or not paying the correct fare? It is millions. Some of it is honest mistakes like yours but the majority is people not paying, using discounts that they don't have (rail cards etc) and sandwich ticketing.
You were lucky that a conductor checked your ticket and not a TI because that would have cost you loads had you have been stopped at the station.

The whole vinted thing is really weird
Firstly it's not very good "proof" of age as she could put anything down.

But more importantly why did he need to establish her age anyway? Her "crime" was travelling when she technically didn't have a ticket (as the journey she had paid for had ended and she stayed on for an extra stop), not buying a child's ticket when she should have bought an adults one for the journey she did pay for!

The £50 fine for travelling without a ticket is the same for everyone so why did he need to know her age at all?

I'm sure if she was a big burly 40 year old man a) the ticket collector wouldn't have gone ott for 30 fucking p anyway and b) he wouldn't then have diverged into checking other, completely irrelevant parts of his identify!

What is wrong with you people? How eager are you to see a young girl frightened, humiliated, and her privacy invaded by a ticket inspector over 30 p.?

As for the crack about middle class mothers? If they do it to middle class white girls they are strip searching and arresting black women and girls. Show some courage snd solidarity why don’t you?

The right thing is to make a fuss: report, go in person, make s noise. On behalf of your dd but also all female passengers..

The behavior of seizing and going through the phone was very concerning. If he had found something more compromising—or something like sexts between her and the boy—I think the whole incident could have been even more serious as he could have tried to further bulky, blackmail, or assault them.