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?

I'm really shocked and angry on your behalf. He had no authority to detain children, and no right whatsoever to take her phone from her, let alone look through it, and certainly no right to prevent her from speaking to her parent on the phone! As for deciding that photos on fucking Vinted counted as age verification, that's just bloody bizarre and all kinds of nonsense.

I'd take this as high as I could, complaints-wise. He needs to be told off in no uncertain terms from his bosses and for them to try to ensure that this never happens again.

ONE of the many things I would be tacking the relevant company about would be asking to be in contact with their safeguarding lead person. I'd be amazed if his actions were in alignment with safeguarding policy.

I also wouldn't be in a hurry to pay that fine, because I'm fairly sure that the company will try to shut you up by writing it off.

What an absolute fucking wanker. Report him.

This 👏

@cremebrulait

I’d hedge a bet the story will change

that doesn’t mean what you think it means 🙄

Absolutely - this is very worrying behaviour by the ticket inspector. Fining a child £52 for a small error like this is disgraceful - a written warning would surely suffice - & going through her phone & intimidating her is worse. Preventing her from speaking to you is appalling - I would contact the police and make formal complaints left right and centre so this rail worker is checked on.

Genuine mistakes with tickets can be appealed much easier now, so first do appeal the charge. These charges are only meant for if a person "does not comply to the ticketing rules *without good reason"

Inspectors can detain people (in certain circumstances) but they have no powers to search through any personal belongings, so him taking her phone & searching through it is an offence.
Going back to detaining your daughter, this is more often done if a person refuses to pay the fare, give their details etc. The inspectors are able to use their "discretion" to decide if someone has made a genuine mistake or knowingly attempted fraud. The passenger having made a genuine mistake, is then given the option to pay for the correct ticket.

I expect this man would not have done this with a grown man, or possibly any adult that knows their rights, that had genuinely made a mistake, it does sound like he wanted to exert authority on someone that he was able to. Unfortunately we live in a world where there are people with unhealthy interests in young people, so when things like this happen, when the response seems disraportionate to the action, then we question motive.

I will echo what other's have said about the photos on vinted, if your daughter is uncomfortable with just one person seeing those photos, then she should not be using these photos of online. If you make a complaint, dont use these photos & it making her uncomfortable to form any part of your argument for him not searching through her phone, because they will just respond stating that they are in a public domain for anyone to see.
You dont need to give any reason other than he does not have the powers to take her phone & search through it.

Finally, I would recommend getting your DD a photo ID, it's worth the cost. My DD is now nearly 6ft tall, by the time she was 11yrs old she was as tall as most adults, all through her life we were questioned about her age. The last couple of years where my DD has had a little independence, she's repeatedly been charged adult prices, lost a lot of money, where she hadn't realised she was being charged as an adult.

He was doing his job but had no right at all to take your Daughters phone from her. Definitely report him as his actions were inappropriate to act like this with a 15 year old girl.

I really think we've been had here. OP was driving over there to confront him days ago but never came back. Or his body cam revealed a different story. Either way, I think people can calm down as it probably didn't happen like OP said.

Still trying to figure out in what universe a vinted account would be accepted as proof of being under 16, given you are supposed to be 18 to have an account?

you’re right in the UK. Working an abroad people say ´hedge a bet’ to say “I would bet”.

but it’s hilarious that you stopped to comment on that. 😆

but it’s hilarious that you stopped to comment on that

Dickish posting as per your earlier approach tends to stand out. Even more so, when in an attempt to be cutting, you get confused over your words. It’s always worth calling out low grade bullying. Hilarious indeed.

Fine is correct. Phone totally inappropriate. Report it definitely

As I’ve said before , he wouldn’t do this to an aggressive male adult.

I can be absolutely sure that this ticket inspector chose an easy target. A male who is likely to be violent or verbally aggressive- no chance.

Ive seen these ticket inspectors literally circle around teenage girls at trains stations before . It’s bullying, and they’re bullying bloody school kids !

Is your DD still grounded OP for presumably lying through her teeth about this ticket inspector?

I believe you and I would complain about the detention of your Dd. I've had a run in with a ticket inspector. I used to commute to and from a station with lifts to a bridge for getting to platforms if you couldn't manage their many stairs. It had a tap in/out machine before the bridge lift if you travelled with oyster/card but no actual ticket barrier and it was rarely supervised by staff. At the time I had a paper monthly ticket and a bad leg so I used the lift but showed my ticket upon request.

Did it one day and got to my platform just in time, heard a man pelting down the platform- fine, assumed he was desperate to get the train and needed this carriage as best positioned for his exit- and suddenly realised he was staring at me as we both got on. He was plain clothes so I initially assumed he was some variety of a creep or wanted my bag. Instead he waited for me to sit down, whipped his badge out and very loudly and confidently asked me why I'd fare dodged by not tapping in. He visibly deflated like a let go balloon when I as loudly and confidently said I had a paper ticket, produced it and asked him what I was supposed to do about putting it through a non existent ticket gate or showing a non existent staff member. That shut him right up.

The station had an issue with teen boys on a sports course nearby dodging fares via the bridge and walking in and out without tapping. I understand him checking me out but he seemed excited at the idea of catching out a 5'2 lady in pearls, I could feel his anticipatory glee at catching someone and finally being able to wield power and work off frustration. I could see how dejected and actually annoyed he looked afterwards. Especially as the train wasn't completely empty and he'd made sure he was loud. That backfired when I replied just as loudly.