Man lambasts Arriva Trains Wales after being charged 10% of cash found in his lost wallet

Company also charges £3 fee for lost walking sticks

One observer accused the company of behaving like ‘the mob’ (PA)

A man who lost his wallet was left outraged after a train company charged him £2 and 10 per cent of the cash inside to retrieve it.

Adam Howells complained on Twitter that Arriva Trains Wales demanded money from him for the return of his wallet and accused the company of “theft by train”.

The company responded to Mr Howells by providing a full list of its lost property charges, which included a £3 fee for walking sticks.

Tim Siddle, who is from south Wales, commented on the exchange between Mr Howells and Arriva Trains Wales and said the company was behaving like “the mob”.

“South Wales feels let down by Arriva Trains Wales. Their train service leaves something to be desired,” Mr Siddle told The Independent.

“To then have the audacity to charge someone a rake on the contents of their wallet under the guise of a ‘recovery charge’ is just opportunism. Those are the tactics of the mob.”

The train company also charges £10 for mobile phones and £3 for pushchairs, bikes, helmets and skateboards.

A spokesperson for Arriva Trains Wales told ITV News: “Tens of thousands of items are lost on the railway network every year.

“To safely store, record and process all these items takes a considerable amount of resource and as such we, like other train operators in the UK, have a small handling and administration fee which is clearly outlined on our website and passenger’s charter, and our social media team have passed these details to the customer.”