So unfare!
£1.50 bus ticket bought with my iPhone cost me nearly £500… when I couldn’t prove it because the battery had died
as life increasingly turns digital, it’s getting easier to pay for everyday things by smartphone.
That’s when they work. But one commuter found out the limitations of the online system when her handset battery died on a bus.
Unable to prove she had earlier bought a ticket using the device, Jemima Kelly was fined and now has a criminal record... over a fare of just £1.50.
Miss Kelly had made a contactless payment for a journey in London using the ‘apple Pay’ feature on her iPhone.
she said: ‘I had tapped into the bus with my iPhone using apple Pay, but alas, in the five minutes since I’d boarded, my phone had run out of juice, so I had no means of proving that I had paid.
‘The inspector took my details and I didn’t think much more about it.’ More than two months later Miss Kelly received a letter from Transport for London saying she had been charged with failing to produce a valid ticket and had 21 days to plead guilty or not guilty.
she contacted TfL and was told to provide a bank statement which showed she had paid for the journey on October 6 last year. Despite providing a card with the firm to obtain her own ‘detailed journey history’.
Transport bosses did not respond to Miss Kelly’s query regarding her bank statement and the next correspondence was a letter which said she had been found guilty at a magistrates’ court and fined. she was subsequently docked £476.50 from her pay cheque in fines and court costs.
apple Pay allows users to store credit or debit card details in order to pay for things with a phone rather than using a physical card. TfL’s website advises customers if ‘ your bank card shows the contactless payment symbol, you can use it to pay as you go straight away’.
It also urges travellers to ‘make sure you have enough battery otherwise you’ll pay the maximum fare or might get a penalty fare’.
Customers can also register a contactless card, but TfL does not claim it is mandatory.
The saga meant Miss Kelly, a journalist for the Financial Times, was unable to get a visa for a trip to the United states thanks to the conviction.
she lost around £1,000 on flights as a result. after being turned down for a visa by the Us Embassy in London, she said: ‘I knew the question of whether I had any prosecutions would come up but didn’t feel my wrongful conviction as a £1.50 bus fare dodger could be too damning. But it turned out that it was damning enough.’
Miss Kelly appealed and the hearing went ahead in June. she added: ‘My conviction was quashed and I was told I was going to be refunded the £ 476.50. “I bet you’re very relieved,” the magistrate said.’