UK man faces jail for fraudulent ticket printing paper operation

A commuter who used ticket printing paper to create his own first class railway tickets has been ordered to pay back £17,000 or face jail.

Mark Mason, aged 44 from Hatfield Doncaster, used his home computer and ticket printing paper to fraudulently create 85 tickets over a period of 21 months. A forensic investigation at his home found he printed the tickets on photographic ticket printing paper, then used craft knives, scissors and a cutting board to create the fake tickets.

Staff became suspicious after noticing a number of discrepancies with the tickets used by Mr Mason. The tickets were found to have incorrect colours, missing dates and times, no emblems and incorrect values for the journeys travelled. In addition to printing train tickets, he also forged tickets for the executive car park at Doncaster train station, which is where the British Transport Police eventually caught up with him. He was arrested on suspicion of fraud and police found a collection of fake tickets in his car. Following a trial, he was ordered to pay back the money and complete community service or face a year in prison.

Detective Constable David Williams, who was involved in the investigation said: “This sentence sends a clear message to anyone thinking of trying to evade payment of train fares and/or parking that it really isn’t worth it. Mason must now pay back all the money he thought he had saved with his fraudulent behaviour or face serving a prison sentence”

Like all ticketed services and events, rail travel is prone to fraud. As one of the largest ticket printing specialists in the UK we help businesses such as racecourses, theatres, football clubs, music venues, arenas, tourist attractions and museums protect against fraud. The rail tickets copied by Mark Mason didn’t contain any of the security features we recommend to protect against forgeries such as watermarked paper, holograms or security inks.