Undercover TfL investigators race against the clock to chase down a serial fraudster

Undercover investigators from Transport for London’s investigations unit caught a serial ‘refunder’ who fraudulently claimed back thousands of pounds in tube fares.

In scenes set to air tonight on Channel 5’s Fare Dodgers: At War With the Law, two seasoned investigators track down a woman in her mid-twenties who calls the service for refunds several times a day.

To avoid suspicion, the unnamed woman, asked for refunds across at least eight Oyster cards racking up more than £1,000 in refunded fares.

She is one of the 70,000 daily fare dodgers on Transport for London, who cost the service £160million in lost revenue a year.  

The episode shows how she regularly makes the journey from Bushey, which is in Hertfordshire but sits in TfL’s fare Zone 8, to West Ham in east London’s Zone 2/3. 

Undercover investigators from Transport for London’s investigations unit caught a serial ‘refunder’ who fraudulently claimed back thousands of pounds in tube fares. In scenes set to air tonight on Channel 5’s Fare Dodgers: At War With the Law, two seasoned investigators track down a woman in her mid-twenties who calls the service for refunds several times a day

Standing just shy of seven-feet tall detective Dan Middlehurst has worked for TfL for 18 years. He tracks down a serial fraudster who has claimed back more than £1000 in false refunds

Standing just shy of seven-feet tall detective Dan Middlehurst has worked for TfL for 18 years. He tracks down a serial fraudster who has claimed back more than £1000 in false refunds

Since she has to travel through Zone 1 to make the trip, the women’s cost could be as much as £8.20 a journey, but all journeys between Zone 1 and 8 will be capped at a maximum of £82.50 a week. 

At Transport for London’s control centre, investigator Tim looks into a possible long-running scam after receiving information from customer services about a commuter who is known to have contacted TfL’s refund hotline hundreds of times in a three month period, running up more than a thousand pounds in suspicious transactions.

 ‘Customer services deal with refunds for customers on occasions where someone may have been overcharged or charged incorrectly’ Tim says.

‘In this particular case there’s a suspicious activity’

Terry, who works for customer services adds: ‘The customer phones three or four times a day to say they need a refund, where they haven’t touched in or out properly. 

‘Or where they’ve touched in and then claimed to have not travelled at all. 

‘They don’t realise how much information we actually see behind the scenes. A lot of customers seem to think they can foil the investigation.

Dan Ambamov (pictured) stays in touch with his colleague, also called Dan, to apprehend the woman at West Ham station

Dan Ambamov (pictured) stays in touch with his colleague, also called Dan, to apprehend the woman at West Ham station

Getting the money back is down to two investigators, Dan Middlehurst and Dan Ambramov. 

With a telephone recording retained as evidence, the inspectors are able to determine the suspect is a female offering a variety of excuses, at times claiming she had failed to tap out by mistake or simply not travelled after entering a station.  

‘I went in the station and went to check my balance – I went into the station and didn’t go anywhere’ the recording says.  

Standing just shy of seven-feet tall detective Dan Middlehurst has worked for TfL for 18 years. 

With a telephone recording retained as evidence, the inspectors are able to determine the suspect is a female offering a variety of excuses, at times claiming she had failed to tap out by mistake or simply not travelled after entering a station. They apprehend her and she refuses to speak to them (pictured)

With a telephone recording retained as evidence, the inspectors are able to determine the suspect is a female offering a variety of excuses, at times claiming she had failed to tap out by mistake or simply not travelled after entering a station. They apprehend her and she refuses to speak to them (pictured)

‘A lot of forethought gone in with this young lady, she’s very very crafty, but we can see from her history the refunds are getting closer and closer together, and it’s that overconfidence that’s going to help us with the investigation’ he says. 

The paired then analysed CCTV to ID the suspect to prove they travelled on days where refunds were claimed.

Once they’d identified they found her,  Dan and Dan were able to match up her transactions of tapping in and out  with CCTV footage, they decided to track her down while she’s on her way to work.

Tracking her oyster card usage in real time, they see her touch in at Bushey. 

Knowing it will take her about an hour and a half to get to West Ham, it’s a race against the clock for them to get to the station in time to meet her. 

Once they'd identified they found her, Dan and Dan were able to match up her transactions of tapping in and out with CCTV footage, they decided to track her down while she's on her way to work

Once they’d identified they found her, Dan and Dan were able to match up her transactions of tapping in and out with CCTV footage, they decided to track her down while she’s on her way to work

Staying in contact on Walkie Talkies with each other, they apprehend the woman at West Ham station and tell her the jig is up.

Amid the morning rush, they are able to stop the woman who, despite being warned of the seriousness of investigation, refuses to comment and requests a more formal interview at a later date. 

Mr Middlehurst tells her: ‘We’ve been conducting an investigation on you for a number of months now. We’ve got a file here with some bits and pieces and we’re going to need to do an interview with you.

 She then tells investigators she doesn’t have ‘an inkling of an idea’ as to why she’s been stopped.

Dan presents her with a book full of evidence showing her false claims and fraudulent journeys

Dan presents her with a book full of evidence showing her false claims and fraudulent journeys

‘You’ve been committing offence on the railway’ Mr Middleshurt adds.

‘This is possible fraud, we have a lot of evidence to show you. These are serious, you need to get the notion out of your head that you need to be at work in five minutes’  

Clearly surprised by the amount of information TfL know about her, she decides to not make any comment without legal representation. 

After she leaves, Mr Middlehurst asks his colleagues: ‘Did you see that look on her face? That little glimpse of “s**t I’ve been caught”?’     

The woman was later interviewed under caution and admitted to the accusations put to her by TFL. 

Investigator’s believe that 293 fraudulent journeys were made in total. She could now be liable to pay back the equivalent of four months travel, plus costs. The case will be handled by prosecutors at Transport for London who are building a case for court. 

She later admitted all the offences, claiming 209 false refunds totalling £1093.35, as well as £294.80 worth of fare evasion – a total of 293 offences.

Prosecutors are now seeking to claim £1388.15 plus legal and investigation fees back through court. 

  • Fare Dodgers: At War with hr Law airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5 

 

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