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Until you drop you phone and break it or it barfs on you in some other way. There was high profile case of an iPhone user who got fined over £600 because the p

Until you drop you phone and break it or it barfs on you in some other way. There was high profile case of an iPhone user who got fined over £600 because the phone died and they could not show the rail ticket to the guard on the train. She was lucky enough to get it picked up by the national press, probably knew someone.

londons_explore 7y ago
Rail crimes are one of very few criminal offences in the UK where you don't have to intend to break the law to be convicted. That means if you can't show your ticket to a guard when requested, even if you did have a ticket on your phone, did have a mobile battery pack, did have a spare wifi hotspot for signal, did have a spare phone incase the first failed, and did have a spare finger in case of your finger suddenly falling off, you are still breaking the law, and can still get a criminal record and go to prison for it. And due to the way rail companies are allowed to prosecute you directly rather than involving the police or CPS, you can be sure they will prosecute in these cases.
TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago
> There was high profile case of an iPhone user who got fined over £600 because the phone died and they could not show the rail ticket to the guard on the train. With certain NFC transit cards, the iPhone can now emulate them even when the main OS shut down due to low battery!
alteria 7y ago
The author, Jemima Kelly, is an (excellent) reporter for FT Alphaville. If I remember correctly, her consequential losses were much larger. Not that TfL should care about that, but an example of how things can spiral. FT link (free) [1] FTAlphaville link (registration required, no paywall) [2] [1] https://www.ft.com/content/e8a177d4-dfae-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc https://www.ft.com/content/e8a177d4-dfae-11e9-9743-db5a37048... [2] https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/10/09/1570632197000/When-fintech-goes--disastrously--wrong/ https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/10/09/1570632197000/When-fi...

londons_explore 7y ago

Rail crimes are one of very few criminal offences in the UK where you don't have to intend to break the law to be convicted. That means if you can't show your ticket to a guard when requested, even if you did have a ticket on your phone, did have a mobile battery pack, did have a spare wifi hotspot for signal, did have a spare phone incase the first failed, and did have a spare finger in case of your finger suddenly falling off, you are still breaking the law, and can still get a criminal record and go to prison for it. And due to the way rail companies are allowed to prosecute you directly rather than involving the police or CPS, you can be sure they will prosecute in these cases.

TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago

> There was high profile case of an iPhone user who got fined over £600 because the phone died and they could not show the rail ticket to the guard on the train. With certain NFC transit cards, the iPhone can now emulate them even when the main OS shut down due to low battery!

alteria 7y ago

The author, Jemima Kelly, is an (excellent) reporter for FT Alphaville. If I remember correctly, her consequential losses were much larger. Not that TfL should care about that, but an example of how things can spiral. FT link (free) [1] FTAlphaville link (registration required, no paywall) [2] [1] https://www.ft.com/content/e8a177d4-dfae-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc https://www.ft.com/content/e8a177d4-dfae-11e9-9743-db5a37048... [2] https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/10/09/1570632197000/When-fintech-goes--disastrously--wrong/ https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/10/09/1570632197000/When-fi...