Student forced to pay £562 for £2.20 train journey after she used wrong ticket

Parys Lanlehin was found guilty of using an invalid ticket on a train going in the wrong direction two years ago

Fare evasion costs the rail industry around £240m each year, according to Great Western Railway (Oli Scarff/Getty)

A university student has been fined £562 for a £2.20 train journey after she was caught using the wrong ticket.

Parys Lanlehin, a 20 year-old student at the University of Nottingham, was found to be using a return train ticket on the wrong day, going in the wrong direction, almost two years ago.

She was issued a £20 penalty fine on the Nottingham to Beeston train, which takes approximately five minutes to complete, but the fine was never paid.

Ms Lanlehin, who now lives in London, signed a declaration to say she was unaware of legal proceedings taking place in Nottingham at Stratford Magistrates Court.

Parys Lanlehin was found guilty of travelling using an invalid train ticket (Facebook)

She was found guilty of boarding a train without a valid ticket after she failed to attend the case at Nottingham Magistrates Court last week and was fined £300 in prosecution costs.

The student was also fined a £200 fee and £22 government surcharge, as well as the original £20 penalty.

Ms Lanlehin has been given two weeks to pay the fines and was issued a collection order, which could be passed on to bailiffs should the outstanding fines not be paid in full.

Earlier this year a passenger on a train in south Devon was fined almost £800 after he was caught without a ticket which would normally have cost him £2.70.

Train fare evasion costs the rail industry around £240m each year, according to Great Western Railway.