Fraudster made £29,000 by selling fake first class LNER tickets on eBay and Shpock

A fraudster made £29,000 selling fake first class rail tickets which cost LNER more than a quarter of a million pounds in lost fares.
By Grace Hammond
Published 9th Oct 2021, 15:55 GMT

Muhammed Sufi, 34, made fraudulent tickets over a five month period before selling them online.

The company - which runs routes between London, Yorkshire and Scotland - say they may have lost £263,000.

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Inner London Crown Court heard the company’s fraud department was tipped off when they found four dubious scratch card tickets being sold on website Shpock.

LNER - which runs routes between London, Yorkshire and Scotland - say they may have lost £263,000.LNER - which runs routes between London, Yorkshire and Scotland - say they may have lost £263,000.
LNER - which runs routes between London, Yorkshire and Scotland - say they may have lost £263,000.

Sufi was snared when an unsuspecting elderly couple who had bought the tickets on eBay were stopped at London Kings Cross station when the serial number was flagged as fraudulent.

The conman had opened an eBay account under the name of an employee of the train company based in London and Yorkshire.

The swindler, from Mitcham in South West London, was handed a nine month jail term suspended for two years after pleading guilty to fraud by false representation.

He was also told to do 100 hours of unpaid work.

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Detective Sergeant Karen Grave of the British Transport Police said: ‘’Sufi was hoodwinking honest members of the public into thinking they had paid fairly and squarely for legitimate tickets.

‘’Ticket fraud is not a victimless crime- the loss is passed down to honest fare-paying members of the travelling public.

‘’We will not tolerate any kind of fraud on the transport network and will make every effort to bring those who do commit the crime to justice.’’