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

This.

There us/was a man at Milton Keynes who routinely threatened people with arrest for getting cross about the machine that read the magnetic stripe on their season ticket swallowing it.

If this guy took DD's phone without her explicit consent he needs reporting.

You've made a lot of good points here, but unfortunately there are no incentives for ticket inspectors to NOT intimidate and belittle lone minors.

I've noticed that inspectors actually reign it in a bit if they're checking tickets on a crowded train because they have a lot of witnesses, and ironically they can be very polite-but-firm with a crowd of young men who've ALL tried dodging the correct fare because they know they need British Transport Police backup if anything escalates!

But on the platform with fewer witnesses, and with people they see are more vulnerable (like lone minors), too many ticket inspectors are all too willing to give into their worst impulses. They have zero incentive to improve on that and it seems little behavioural oversight.

Cops

Are you 100% certain this is the whole story? A ticket inspector grabbing her phone and scrolling through and finding pics of your daughter in skimpy clothes? All for 30p?

No they don't. Many of them don't even work for the rail companies and are contracted to it from agencies. They have no authority at all, the most they can do is call the British Transport Police.

As for someone saying if they show humanity they aren't doing their jobs properly - there are inconsistencies anyway. Apparently I have to buy a ticket before I board a train, but if I buy it on the train the guard (not the same as a ticket inspector) gets commission. It all depends on whether my non-ticket is checked by a guard or a ticket inspector. The rules are ridiculous.

And you verifying her age. Honestly OP that just makes you sound daft. Parents lie too!

Oh give over, everyone will fib to save their skin.

Lesson learned, don’t steel by not paying for what you take. That’s what she did, whether it was a ‘mistake’ or not.

I’m going to say you don’t have the entirely full story.

I just don’t believe a ticket inspector said let me scroll your Vinted account. What I do believe is that he started from the POV of you are travelling on a child ticket and not a child AND you’ve gone a stop too far. And she’s panicked and heard not a child - and immediately wanted to prove that she is right. So suggested ways she could prove it, and this was Vinted etc. He should not have gone through it though, he should have said no, that’s not proof of age.

From my experience with my child, this is where panic takes over. Rationally, I asked him why on earth he didn’t just ask me to send a pic of his passport - but in the moment he wasn’t thinking clearly and panicked.

I say this from experience as very similar happened to my child (who was also 15 and not believed). They were very over zealous with him. They’re not allowed to speak to a parent on the phone for GDPR (again I know this as I happened to be really close as was picking him up at the station, so dashed to where they had detained him and asked these questions in person). At the time when I was on the end of the phone I was really panicked and couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t come to the phone - I thought they were being difficult but when I got there they were lovely and explained they could lose their job for it.

However, what I would challenge is - the fine will be an on the spot penalty. It’ll be the same whether you have no ticket/the wrong ticket.

So they already had the wrong ticket (went a station too far). He decided to be a jobsworth and issue a fine (you don’t have a leg to stand on with this as they did have the wrong ticket - where people tell you that inspector X let them away with it etc, that’s because inspector X was not a jobsworth, was a decent human but actually, from a job POV they actually didn’t do their job properly, and this inspector did). Therefore whether she was 15 or not (and the subsequent phone scrolling) is irrelevant.

If the fine was based on age alone, you could/he could argue that this was an attempt to verify age and therefore not fine her - fair enough (ish)? But he was fining her anyway so this is where I think you have grounds to say abuse of power/overstepping.

His counter argument would be the above, so you would in your complaint immediately debunk that theory by pointing out that the fine was being issued regardless.

He should have very calmly said - in future, please carry proof of your age. You could be fined for travelling on a child ticket if you cannot prove you are a child. However, because you are travelling on the wrong ticket, I am issuing you with a fine for that anyway - here you go. That would have saved the drama and panic and confusion.

This.

Your DD is unfortunately getting the brunt of the manner in which fare dodgers behave.

I’ve heard them and they are full of crap as they slowly get caught out in all their lies.

The train companies can run their own prosecutions, like the Post Office. They abuse the power, like the Post Office, as demonstrated by ticket inspectors acting as though they actually are police.

Your friend might want to start a little careful arse-covering now, just in case a bit of Post Office backlash comes to the train companies. It would be better to treat people fairly than end up the person in front of an inquiry tearfully saying you thought it was your job to bully and detain minors.

Surely he just stopped her and, when she insisted she was under 16 (they all say that!), he asked for proof and she opened Vinted and handed him her phone?

The alternative is that she couldn't prove it and she'd have been dealt with as 16+

Did he really scroll through her photos, or was she just aware that the photos were on there when she showed him her account info?

I can't help feeling sceptical. I teach kids that age and am often shocked at their skewed perception.

If he really did 'detain her' and forced her into unlocking her phone for him, and scrolled through her photos, then yes of course complain.

You should complain, but make sure you have the facts straight. DD has just been issued a big fine due to her own mistake, it's possible she may be exaggerating? Maybe not, but make sure you're not going to look stupid. The inspector was probably wearing a bodycam..

Also make sure you're complaining about the right things. He was correct to challenge someone without the correct ticket. He absolutely shouldn't have taken her phone, but did she have an eticket, so he did need to look at it? If he did look through her phone, that's enough, it doesn't matter what he looked at and the crop tops are a red herring.

Talk to the friend, but if it's as it seems, yes definitely complain. I'd consider police too.

Initially I thought maybe he was having a bad day and your daughter got the brunt of it, but the point at which he knowingly prevented a minor from speaking to their parent, and thus didn’t shake him out of his power trip..it’s extremely worrying. His behaviour was completely disproportionate to the 30p mistake your daughter and her friend made, and extremely inappropriate. I agree with people who have suggested contacting the police, as it’s such an overstretch of what would have been the expected response. I fear if you just contact the train company you might just get fobbed off, and actually this behaviour is a complete abuse of his (very insignificant) power.