Five people were arrested by Sussex Police officers today (Friday 14 July) as they investigate a bus ticket fraud in Brighton and Hove.
The force said: “On Friday officers executed warrants at two properties in the city as part of an inquiry into the sale of fake tickets, potentially netting an income running into tens of thousands of pounds.
“Detectives have been working closely with Brighton and Hove Buses, the victim of the counterfeiting operation.
“Two men aged 21 and 24 and three woman aged 20, 24 and 46, all from Brighton, were arrested on suspicion of fraud offences.
“The 24-year-old man was also arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled drug of Class B – cannabis.
“Two were released under investigation. The other three remained in custody on Friday afternoon.”
Crime investigator Dianna Harman said: “Quite often these types of deals happen online and if they look to good to be true, they almost certainly are.
“Anyone with information about the supply of fake tickets is asked to report online at https://sussex.police.uk/appealresponse or call 101 quoting serial 1638 of 11/05.”
We were host to a foreign language student over Easter, and she told us that every morning, one of their group would buy an e-ticket and then send them all an image with the daily password. They’d then save it on their own phone as show it to the driver as they boarded, and the driver never realised it wasn’t an actual e-ticket. The guy who distributed the image charged each person in bitcoins and, according to our guest, appeared to be doing pretty good business.
I’ve no idea if it as just her school group who were involved, but the bus company could be losing a shedload of money over this.
The password on the e-tickets is animated, so a still photo wouldn’t work if the driver was paying attention.
Brighton and Hove buses are not the only victims here. Drivers are confiscating passes and not explaining how they are fake. They’re issuing a day ticket but the buyers are still out of pocket too. Yea, some will have bought these knowing they’re fake but some will not.