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?

Yes and then they could appeal it. That is all that should have happened in this instance . No reason for inspector to go snooping in the phone.

No it absolutely doesn’t.

Would you? Or would you have assumed cheeky teenage fare dodger?

Report this man immediately.

They advise lots of things.

If they can’t prove someone is over 16 they aren’t going to get fined. My experience with dd and her friends is that they always just accept what they are told. The only one I’ve ever heard challenged was travelling with a group of friends without tickets. But they still accepted what she told them.

Ticket inspectors can’t really ‘detain’ you anyway, they can’t wrestle you to the ground if you jump the barrier and if you are on a train, they ask for your ticket and you don’t have one but get off ar the next station that has no barrier there’s nowt they can do. (I overheard a couple talking about it on a train once) Oh and if you pretend to be asleep on the train they can’t shake you awake.

I’m not advocating fare dodging, never done it myself and dd will have 16/17 card as soon as she is but I have provided advice to people who haven’t been able to afford the ridiculous amounts they have suddenly demanded. I have over the years had a couple of genuine lost ticket scenarios that were treated entirely differently by two TIs.

This is a ridiculous case - 50 quid for 30p Wtaf.

Basically travelling on a train you are by some of them treated like a criminal till you prove otherwise.

The biggest robbers are the train companies. The level of fares, parking on top. Crap service.

I think his not allowing the child, a minor, to seek help from her mother is extremely sinister.

None of us were there. It might be as OP's dd said - he detained her against her will, took her phone without consent and then scrolled through it.

Or he might have legitimately stopped a fare dodger, treated her as if she was 16+, and then looked at the app she opened and showed him to prove she was 15, following which he issued a £50 fine and sent her on her way.

People outraged at the fine - it's meant to be a deterrent. If being caught short faring or fare dodging meant you just had to pay the fare then everyone would risk it.

Op's dd might be genuine but he sees hundreds who aren't and how can he tell the difference? There are websites dedicated to helping people to dodge fares or wriggle out of fines and prosecutions.

Well know soon because op drove over there this morning.

Report to Rail Ombudsman?
It does sound entirely inappropriate.
I’ve had a few run ins with horrible ticket inspectors that have unsettled me as an assertive 50 yr old.
eg bought day return ticket (requires change of train at B) Get on train then they announce no connection train at B as no driver. So annoying as could have got bus instead if they had announced before boarding but I’m now part way. So I get off at B and go to walk outside to wait for a lift. Ticket inspector stops me as my ticket is to W not B (I have a more expensive ticket so what does it matter) I’m stood there arguing I’ve only got off at B as they have just announced there’s no train to W. Eventually lets me go.
Coming back from a big city knackered after a concert. Arrive at station train I’m booked on cancelled, no staff anywhere. Get on next train to destination. Told rudely I have wrong ticket and need to buy another. Waits until I show disability rail card on phone then sneers you can’t use on train. So rude and unnecessary - I have a ticket, train was cancelled you can clearly see I’m not fare dodging. I might report that one as it’s recent and is clearly still bugging me.

Creep on a power trip, I doubt he would have done the same to an adult. I would definitely report him

Apologies for not reading the full thread but are you sure the fine is even valid?

My friend got stopped once when he was 16 for using a child’s ticket and they called his mum . They explained she would need to provide her details because he was a minor so she had to pay his fine. She told them either he was an adult as per his infarction of not using an adult ticket when he should have done and they should fine him or he was a child and they should let him go as they had no right to detain him. This was a while ago but they let him go.

Please don’t let this nasty pasty get away with this. I bet he got a total power trip out of it.

People outraged at the fine - it's meant to be a deterrent. If being caught short faring or fare dodging meant you just had to pay the fare then everyone would risk it.

This is a strange type of piety. It is basically taking the moral high ground by saying the only reason you don’t fare dodge is because you might be fined. Really???? My main reason is because actually paying is the right thing to do. Bit like I don’t murder people who I dislike, or burgle houses it isn’t the actual punishment that puts me off.

Those who want to fare dodge can - they can just jump barriers and leg it. This is all picking on the people who usually play by the rules.

An inability to see shades of grey isn’t something to take moral high ground over.

It's great that you do the right thing because it's the right thing but many don't.

For many, they do the right thing because there are consequences for not doing so

I think a lot of people would short fare if they thought they'd only have to pay the difference if caught. In fact, you've only got to look at the sites set up to discuss how to dodge fares, fines and prosecution to know that's true.

Come on op. If you drive over yesterday morning you must have an update

Possibly an apology and fine waived, if events unfolded as your dd described

He was being a dick. There’s no way he would taken a phone off an adult. Just so odd.

Report it. He was entitled to fine her because she had the wrong ticket. The rest is unacceptable.