The 22-year-old performer was travelling home from a funeral in tears when her ticket was inspected only to find her ticket wasn't valid
A woman who was left facing a £1,100 bill for using an out-of-date railcard 30 times after a "human mistake" is calling for a change in the rules. Tash Bacarese-Hamilton says she had no warning that her railcard had expired and no email or alert advising her to buy a new one.
They said an investigation revealed Tash had used the card while out of date on 30 separate trips and hit her with the bill for all of them at once. EMR said for the railway to improve and operate successfully the conditions around railcards need to be followed. "The inspector took a closer look at it and said the railcard had expired in April. I don't know how I didn't realise this but I never got a notification or email telling me it was due to expire.
At Kettering Station where Tash had to change trains, she had to relay her side of the story to the EMR inspector and was told they would be in touch within a month. The part-time video editor then was able to continue her journey to London St Pancras but spent the next few weeks anxiously awaiting a penalty notice.
"The second week I thought maybe it was a bit of a scare and they weren't going to do anything but then when the email came through, it started off with the word fraud and my heart stopped. It said if I didn't pay, I was facing court and a criminal record. "I was doing big trips and they said they calculated the full fare of all the trips I did without the railcard discount and got the £1,100 fine. Firstly when I was doing those trips, I was still paying £40 or £50 for the tickets so I am basically having to pay double for what I have already paid."
"I had worked so hard for this money and it was a kick in the teeth. I want to get this story out and reach as many people as possible so they rethink their system.
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