This is the moment a rail passenger was confronted for allegedly accumulating over £3,000 in unpaid fares by dodging payments for travel at least 400 times.

Investigators from Transport for London (TfL) intercepted the woman at Ilford station on the Elizabeth line in East London after monitoring her travel patterns for several weeks.

The woman was believed to have been using a fraudulent contactless card to move across the city from this line to Notting Hill Gate Underground station in West London.

She was finally apprehended by a team who compared the dates, times, and stations where the card was used with CCTV images showing her moving through the ticket barriers.

The confrontation is highlighted in the latest episode of Channel 5’s series Fare Dodgers: At War With The Law, where the woman was interviewed by two investigators.

The episode, which aired yesterday and is currently available for streaming on 5, depicts the woman being questioned about £3,160.40 in unpaid fares by an inspector named Lisa.

Cameras follow Lisa and a colleague taking the woman into a private room at the station where she tells her: ‘We have been following you, yes you, for quite a while.’

Lisa continues: ‘This is a criminal investigation. We work for TfL. I need your name, address and the bank card. If I don’t get all of the above, you no longer deal with us, it will then become a police matter, yes, this is how serious this is.’

The woman initially denies any wrongdoing, telling Lisa: ‘No, I just use one card, no. How I can get that bank card?’

But Lisa continues: ‘If you continue to lie to me, it will become a police matter. This is no joke. We know it’s you and like I said, I’ve been able to track you. You currently owe TfL that amount of money.’

The woman replies: ‘Huh?’ 

Lisa then tells her: ‘Listen, this has been a long, long investigation and we know that the person we’re after is you.’

The passenger provides her name and address, but refuses to provide the bank card details – meaning she is cautioned by the team, but not arrested.

They show her CCTV of her arriving at Notting Hill Gate, but she continues to not produce the card despite pages of evidence showing she was the card user.

Viewers are told that the team need to gather more CCTV from Notting Hill Gate to present to the woman at a taped interview, and the investigation will therefore continue.

Fare evasion is now costing TfL about £190million a year, after the amount lost rose by almost 50 per cent from two years ago – partially due to people avoiding fares on the Elizabeth line, which opened in 2022.

The data in a Freedom of Information response to The Standard last month revealed the cost had risen from about £130million in 2022/23 to £190million in 2023/24 and £188million in 2024/25.

Fare dodging has become a hotly debated issue in recent months while the Channel 5 series has aired, after a series of high-profile cases in which passengers have faced prosecution over small amounts of money.

In one example, a passenger was threatened with court action for accidentally selecting a 16-25 Railcard ticket when they held a 26-30 Railcard, which provides the same discount.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has written to train operators stating that ‘any enforcement must be proportionate and not punish those making genuine mistakes’.

She accepted the recommendations of regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), which included creating consistency in how passengers are treated when ticket issues arise, and ensuring passengers have clearer information about tickets.

Industry body the Rail Delivery Group has estimated that fare dodging creates £350million to £400million in lost revenue each year.

And former Conservative leadership contender Robert Jenrick posted a video on social media in May in which he confronted people who forced their way through the ticket barriers at Stratford station in London.

Fare Dodgers: At War With The Law continues on Channel 5 next Monday at 9pm