Saturday, May 03, 2008

Oyster oversight; obvious overeaction...

I do despair sometimes: the Daily Telegraph reports today that an aide to an Archbishop is to be prosecuted for 20p oversight...."Rachel McKenzie, 54, offered to pay the difference when an inspector said she did not have enough credit on her Oyster pre-pay card, but was told she would be prosecuted... ...If convicted, she may have to pay a fine of up to £1,000 plus legal costs." All this despite it being only 20p, despite the fact that it was almost certainly an innocent mistake, despite offering to pay the difference and more importantly, despite not being challenged by the driver of the bus, she has been given a summons and must appear before Sutton magistrates later this month. I wonder, had the inspector been faced by a thug who hadn't paid anything and refused to pay anything would he be so...so...fucking petty? I truly hope the magistrate kicks this complete and utter waste of time and money out of court without a nanosecond's hesitation and with no qualifying remarks in support of the inspector re only doing his job.

Bookmark and Share

3 comments:

The Great Gildersleeve said...

It is crazy but I have heard similar stories happening. The other night(anecdotal)someone paid on his Oyster Card but in a hurry and being onthe wrong side of a barrier or something the card wasn't swiped correctly but the amount was stored on the card.

On the underground train the passenger was approached by an official and asked to have his card inspected. The official refused to show his ID which the passenger asked to see.

In short the passenger was fined and now has to pay a big penalty and it wasn't that he was trying to avoid showing his card. He jokingly said, "I'll show you mine if you show me you'rs"

Of course we only have his word but it wouldn't surprise me.

Anonymous said...

I see she has been let off thank goodness

Span Ows said...

Yes...good. Common sense and it shouldn't ahve even got as far as it did.

P.S. HELLO LUCY! :-)

Gildy, will be over to catch up on all your posts soon...just flying back today.