Rail passenger is hit with 'ridiculous' £102.50 fine after missing out on buying £1.50 fare for six-minute, one-stop journey

By JAKE HOLDEN, UK NEWS REPORTER Published: 08:16, 1 August 2026 | Updated: 08:25, 1 August 2026 A 'frustrated' rail passenger was hit with a 'ridiculous' £102.30 fine after he said he couldn't buy a ticket on his phone and tried to pay the £1.50 fare to a member of staff on arrival. Small business owner Luke Potts, 28, had been travelling one stop from his home in Levenshulme to Manchester Piccadilly for a friend's birthday celebrations on May 4. But after a problem with purchasing his ticket for the six-minute journey, he said he immediately went up and asked a station worker to buy a ticket on his arrival in Manchester, but was instead fined on the spot. He said: 'They really don't care about doing the right thing. They don't care about whether it's fair or not. 'They don't care about the effect it has on the other person. It just seems like they will do everything they possibly can to get money from somebody, and I just think that's frustrating to say the least.' Mr Potts believed he had actually bought himself a ticket before his journey. But while running for his train in Levenshulme, which he said came a few minutes early, he realised his purchase had not gone through on the Trainline app. He said he tried to buy it again while the train was still stationary at the platform but was instead met with a confusing error message telling him it was no longer available to purchase because the train had departed. Luke Potts, 28, was hit with a 'ridiculous' £102 fine after he tried to buy a £1.50 ticket from a member of staff on arriving at his destination Mr Potts appealed the fine three times, which meant the initial £52.30 fee increased to £102.30 after he missed deadlines. Here his letter - with his name misspelt - set out the details Not thinking too much of it, he said he decided to stay on board and then approach staff at Manchester Piccadilly and explain what had happened and buy a ticket from them. But things did not go as he expected. He described the 'cold' woman that he spoke to there. He said: 'It was as if she wasn't allowed to show any humanity. That's how I'd describe it. 'Not in a sense of she was a horrible, nasty person, but it was cold, and you could tell that she just switched off and was like, "It doesn't matter what words are going to come out of your mouth. I have to fine you." 'In my head I thought, "How can you not grasp that this was an honest mistake?"' Mr Potts makes this journey regularly and said he always pays for his ticket. He has appealed the fine three times - sending evidence of his previous payments and his Railcard to show himself as an honest customer. It was to no avail, however, as he received a letter from Northern Rail - with his name misspelt - confirming his appeal had been rejected by them last Monday.  Today, he said he has finally decided to pay the £102.30 fine since debt collectors have become involved and are threatening to take him to court. Mr Potts said: 'It is frustrating because I've lived in Manchester for seven years, and the amount of people who evade tickets on trains and trams and just jump off or refuse to pay, or get angry or violent and they get away with it is ridiculous. 'I just think it's mad that if you want to do the right thing, if you are an open, honest person, you're punished for it.' His initial fine had been £52.30 but went up while waiting for the appeal process, which meant he missed payment deadlines. The final £102.30 sum is nearly 70 times - or around 7,000 per cent - more than the initial ticket price. After reading other 'horror stories' online about similar 'mad' fines which ended with passengers being hit with CCJs and harsh court-ordered penalties, Mr Potts said he would pay his fine. He has recently begun his own funeral services company named June after his late grandmother and said he cannot risk fighting this for fear of it affecting his financial ability to continue with his budding company. Mr Potts said: 'I'd rather £100 than £1,000 and that difference could have been put towards better things - onboarding funeral professionals and helping families in times of grief. 'I've got to think about the positive stuff that can be done with that money, not handing it to Northern Rail over £1.50.' He added: 'This is how the system preys on working class people. If I had money, I would absolutely be appealing it, but because I'm in a position where I have to be careful, I'm basically going to be handing them over free money for something that I shouldn't be.' Northern Rail has been contacted for comment by the Daily Mail.