FARE dodgers are being forced to pay back thousands of pounds following a crackdown by rail company c2c... including a man who travelled from Southend to West Ham 142 times on a "short" ticket.
c2c, which runs services between Shoebury and London, has recouped more than PS250,000 this year already in a bid to clamp down on fare evasion.
One individual recently paid back PS2,352.20 in unpaid fares having travelled from Southend East to West Ham 142 times on a short ticket.
They were spotted by c2c revenue protection officers tapping a contactless card at West Ham station having just travelled on a c2c train.
Another individual is currently paying back PS2,462.40 having been caught regularly travelling from Benfleet to West Ham on a ticket which was only valid to Pitsea.
Iain Palmer, c2c's head of revenue protection and security, said: "Fare evasion is a criminal offence and costs the rail industry millions of pounds every single year.
"It is also a contributor to anti-social behaviour across the rail network.
"Our revenue protection and security teams have been working hard to crack down on those travelling on c2c without a valid ticket, and we are delighted to have reached the PS250k milestone having hit PS100k back in August.
"But the hard work doesn't stop there.
"Fare and ticket evasion on the c2c network, whether deliberately or inadvertently, is a criminal offence and we will always look to prosecute repeat offenders."
c2c's revenue protection and security teams, operating in partnership with the British Transport Police, work night and day across the length of the c2c network to catch and apprehend those travelling without a valid ticket for their journey.
Since the beginning of the year, c2c has submitted 447 cases for prosecution and issued 3,198 individual penalty fares.
Of the 447 cases, 319 have already led to successful prosecutions and those remaining are still to go to court or pending a result.
In addition, hundreds more cases of ticketing fraud and fare evasion are currently being investigated and dealt with by c2c's Revenue Protection team.