RAIL company c2c today spearheaded a new campaign to clamp down on fare dodgers after dishing out more than 8,000 fines and recovering £470,000 so far this year.

The train operator, which runs services between Shoebury and London Fenchurch Street, has teamed up with Ortis Deley, presenter of Channel 5 show Police Interceptors, to launch the “Fare Evasion - not worth the gamble” campaign.

It has invested in improving its ticket gates, technology, investigation practices, and is deploying uniformed and undercover revenue protection officers to protect against rail users who commit fraud.

c2c added a number of repeat offenders had also been caught, with some being ordered to pay nearly £10,000 of dodged fares.

Ortis said: “Some people still think they can get away with ticketless travel and to combat this, c2c has invested in lots of clever ways to catch habitual fare evaders, so it’s really not worth the gamble.

“Sadly, fare dodgers cost UK train companies hundreds of millions of pounds a year; as part of its contract with the Department for Transport, c2c is committed to being a financially responsible operator.

“Catching fare evaders ensures honest fare-paying travellers and the taxpayer do not pick up the burden of lost investment in rail.”

More than 2,000 CCTV units have been fitted into the operator’s 26 stations, while investment has also been made into “bespoke technology” to highlight patterns in ticketing and passenger data, allowing for the identification of people who avoided paying for their journeys.

Intelligence provided by digital sales channels and ticket barriers helps to identify passengers without a valid ticket for the entirety of their journey.

This allows revenue protection officers to track a passenger in real time, while they will also have a body-worn video camera to gain further evidence and to reduce antisocial behaviour.

“It’s a criminal offence to travel on a train without the right ticket, so this is a serious issue. c2c offers so many ways to buy a ticket, passengers can purchase a ticket from the station, our app or online, making it easy for passengers to have the right ticket before they travel.

“Our revenue protection officers are everywhere, uniformed and undercover. We use intelligence to ensure we have enough evidence to take long term fare evaders to court and we’ve been very successful at finding those that fare evade. If we don’t get you today, we’ll get you tomorrow or the day after, it’s really not worth the risk.”

For more detail, visit www.c2c-online.co.uk/gamble.