"Professional" doughnutter gets nailed

[Retro]

No it's not a way of making illegal donuts professionally, but a form of fair evasion where only part of the required fair is paid.

One bright spark defrauded Southeastern railway to the tune of £6000, but he finally got nailed for it. Just pay your fare like everyone else, there's a good chap.

Doughnutting is a type of fare evasion where a passenger buys tickets covering the beginning and end of a journey – but not the middle section.

The name comes from the idea of leaving a “hole” in the middle of the journey.

In practice, a commuter would buy a ticket for the starting station and another station near the start of the journey, as well as from a station near the end of the journey and the final destination.

This essentially means they are only paying for these two journeys, leaving the middle section entirely unpaid, and therefore saving money on the entire journey.

The method relies on gaps in ticket inspections or automated barriers, allowing a passenger to appear to hold valid tickets at both ends of a journey while avoiding the full fare, and using the tickets to get through barriers at the start and end.

Rail operators treat this as deliberate fare evasion because the passenger is knowingly travelling beyond the validity of their ticket.

What is 'doughnutting'? The train ticket scam that left banker with railway ban

As a banker is sentenced for dodging nearly £6,000 in tickets, we explain the 'sophisticated' train fare evasion practice.

uk.news.yahoo.com