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

[SmellsLikeTeenSpirits]

15 yo DD bought wrong train ticket today. She got off at stop after the one she'd bought ticket for because of a last minute change of plan with her friends. So a £2.70 journey rather than a £3 one.

At the final destination her and her friend were stopped by ticket inspector. They tried to explain what had happened and pay the excess. He wasn't having any of it. I can kind of sympathise with that.

What I would like your view on / experience of is this:

He detained them for 20 minutes. DD called me and was a bit shaken. I heard him say - you can't talk to your mum now - and then her phone went off. I tried calling and she messaged saying she'd call back in 5. He took her phone off her and went through her apps to try and prove she was over 15 (she looks 16 maybe - no older). In the end he accepted that she was in fact 15 and has written on the fine notice that he verified her age through her Vinted app. DD said she felt really uncomfortable as he went through her vinted page (where she is modelling some crop tops etc) and scrolled through the pictures. I got through to her again on the phone and asked her to put him on the phone but he refused.

Eventually he gave her a fine of £52 and let her go on her way.

Is this acceptable? Am I being unreasonable if I complain. I don't feel that an adult man should be detaining 15 year olds and confiscating their phones? She had the wrong ticket - just issue the fine if you need to?? Or am i being unreasonable - not having correct ticket is a crime - suck it up - the guy was just doing his job?

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.

Daily Mail sad face style?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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...

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.

I suppose it's the same as buying an Advance ticket & the discount applies for that actually journey?

I wonder if it had been an automated barrier if it would have let you through?

That said, there are ways of handling these situations aren't there?

At the end of the day if he had let you through, who would have known?

Can you explain the part of his job description that requires him to stop an underage girl from phoning her mum, confiscating her phone and perusing her apps at his leisure?

What an ugly comment.

So dismissive of a child's distress.
Often when cases of overreaching are publicise, others come forward and change happens.
He certainly wouldn't have taken a phone from a well built man.

There really isn't any moderation on this site.
OP's allowed to be bullied and abused for genuine concern about their child by a strange man in a uniform.

If I were there, I would have intervened as an adult female to make sure they were safe and being treated correctly. At the least stayed with them to make sure they were ok. Terrible no-one did.
Yes, complain OP. No way should he have hung up on you.

Someone enjoyed their moment of power over these kids a bit much. Definitely report and complain. I'd have put it on their social media accounts as generally that gets their attention and they respond pronto.

How did it go when you drove over there today op?

So? They can “suggest” anything they like. It doesn’t means you are compelled to follow their suggestion, nor does it mean they have any rights to demand you prove your age.