http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27011497
Fair play to him. I’d do the same.
I wonder who it is.
Haha yeah it is pretty easy to do when commuting from/to a station without barriers. I bet the guy is rocking a Patek yet refuses to pay for a season ticket.
Why pay for things you can figure out how to get for free?
Smart guy
Did anyone actually read the story? Seems preferable to pay the small fee daily than to puke out the lump sum plus penalties at once…but then again I’m not a HF manager.
“He paid back the £42,550 in dodged fares, plus £450 in legal costs, within three days as part of an out-of-court settlement.”
^ He got to keep his money and not pay for five years, then pay it all now for a measley 1% penalty.
It seems that they were monitoring him and were laying in wait one day when he tapped out. He then admitted to doing it 5 times but then renewed his season ticket the week after and they figured he’d been doing it since he last had a season ticket in 2008.
There’s uproar in the press today saying that he bought anonymity by settling out of court immediately and if he was just a man on the street he wouldn’t have been able to pay and he’d be hauled up in court and named and shamed.
Bizarrely, everyone at work and on this forum agree that it was fair game if the system isn’t effective.
Everyone that doesn’t work in finance thinks he should lynched.
Yeah they do monitor, TFL have a whole team that monitor Oyster activity and look for unusual patterns/activity. BBC Panorama did a special on it a few years back, but the angle then was more like: take pity on these people on benefits who can’t afford to pay the fare to get to jobcentre in order to claim their benefits.
I’ve gamed the system a few times but it’s much easier just to get a corporate ticket loan.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30475232
banned from financial services for life. harsh
Turns out he was a government bond fund manager. suppose they have to squeeze out every last bp from somewhere…
There used to be a loophole in the Bay Area bridge toll system where you could drive around the entire bridge circuit and not pay any of the tolls. I did this by accident once and it felt like a huge victory even though I probably burned up more in gas than I saved on the tolls. Because F-U tolls.
I too support the train guy.
Seems harsh.
The worst might yet be to come. If he’s a charter holder, he will probably have his membership revoked too!
He did not exploit a loophole - he just dodged the fare. He was supposed to have tapped in at his beginning station, but he did not, since there was no one checking. This is cheating and not a clever use of rules.
Definitely way to harsh of a sentence!
I for one do not agree. Unethical and petty behaviour, especially for someone in a senior role such as his. Cheating the system isn’t “fair game.” Yes, the system wasn’t well designed, but does that make it ok to knowingly steal from it for years? slippery slope…
This leads to the bigger question of “if you could do something illegal/ethically deprived and get away with it, would you?” If your answer is yes, does that imply you only make the “right” decisions out of fear of public shaming/ridicule or the legal system?
I realize when money is involved and the only party being hurt is the “governement” people can easily ignore their guilty conscious. Moreover, the real world isn’t as black and white as the question I asked, but it should serve as food for thought regardless.
My experience in the investment world is that people will make unethical decisions for far less money than you would expect. I have seen people sell out their good friends for an extra $50k and saw someone lose out on the best candidate (after repeatedly lying to them) over a $10k signing bonus dispute even though the guy doing the hiring was worth nine figures. On a personal level, I’ve had lots of people try to rip me off for as little as $100. It’s staggering.
^ that’s a pretty fu#%in sad state of affairs
Not surprised at all.
They had to make an example of him. Anything that makes “bankers” look bad will make the public happy.