Londoners could earn £500 reward for reporting serial Tube fare dodgers under radical new plan

Londoners could get a reward of £500 by reporting persistent Tube fare evaders to the authorities under a plan unveiled by a mayoral hopeful.

The sum could include unpaid fares, penalty fares and compensation awarded by the courts.

Alex Challoner wants police to guard Tube ticket gates

Alex Challoner

Mr Challoner highlighted one case where a fare dodger was recently ordered to pay more than £2,100 after being prosecuted for 181 journeys without paying.

If someone who had tipped off the authorities about this individual were to receive a quarter of the penalties that could amount to around £500.

Mr Challoner said: “Every Londoner who taps in knows the feeling of watching someone barge through the barrier behind them.

“They are paying for that person's journey, and under Sadiq Khan nothing ever happens.”

If he gained the keys to City Hall, he vowed to launch a huge Fare Watch publicity campaign to highlight how to report people not paying when they use the Tube.

Londoners would be rewarded for helping to catch fare dodgers

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When he launched his bid to be the Tory candidate for Mayor of London, the centrepiece of his plans was to put police on Undergound ticket gates to stop people evading fares.

Transport for London staff would be trained to challenge people suspected of dodging fares and to back up officers on the gates.

Mr Challoner stressed that fare dodging costs TfL an estimated £190 million a year.

Sir James Cleverly

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However, Mr Challoner, who founded Cavendish Communications, has made a late challenge to Sir James.

He was campaign director for the Steve Norris London Mayoral Campaign in 2000 and ran himself for the Conservative nomination in 2023.