Broadcaster: Channel 5
4 x 60" episodes
Distributor: Passion
London’s public transport system is one of the largest and busiest in the world. Every single day 11 million people use a bus or train to travel through the city, but not all of them are paying their way. An estimated 125,000 fare dodgers try to get away without paying every day, swindling the system out of more than £100 million a year. With special access to Transport for London’s Revenue Protection teams, Fare Dodgers: At War With The Law tells the stories of the frontline enforcement officers and undercover investigators fighting back in London’s fare-dodging war.
Transport for London has issued more than 600,000 discounted and free travel passes to groups such as over sixties, disabled people and the unemployed – but every year an estimated 19,000 crooked commuters are caught fraudulently misusing these privileged travel passes on the London Underground. We find out how TfL clamp down on the increasing trend of fraudsters taking advantage of the discounts and free travel available to entitled individuals.
We join Transport for London’s control centre, where investigators use state-of-the-art technology to detect unusual patterns of behaviour on passengers’ payment cards, and then hunt down prolific fare cheats who are costing the network £116 million a year.
