A BOLTON businessman and radio DJ has accused Northern Rail of “bullying tactics” after he was fined £80 for mistakenly underpaying for a ticket by 70 pence.

Andrew Dickson, the boss of Wow Consultancy and a chairman and presenter at Bolton FM, was issued with the fine after a journey into Manchester.

The 67-year-old normally travels from Bolton to Manchester once a week on business, but having experienced poor conditions at Bolton train station he decided to travel instead from Lostock station on Wednesday, March 25.

With the ticket office at Lostock closed and no conductor on the service, Mr Dickson queued up to purchase the ticket for his one-way journey after arriving at Manchester Piccadilly.

He said: “I normally always come from Bolton so when they asked me where I’d come from I said Bolton without thinking and was issued a ticket for £3.90.

“I then felt a firm hand on my shoulder from an official who explained that Northern Rail were clamping down on fare dodgers.”

The businessman realised he had made an error and said he told the official he was very happy to pay the 70p discrepancy between the two prices.

He said: “That wasn’t allowed and I was told I would be hearing from the company.

"Four weeks later a letter arrived from Northern’s debt recovery and prosecutions unit which said I was guilty of fare evasion and travelling with the intent of avoiding paying the correct fare.”

Mr Dickson said he was unhappy with the “bullying” words being used in the letter for what was a “genuine mistake”.

He wrote back, explaining the mistake and Northern responded by issuing an £80 fine, stating that non-payment would result in legal proceedings and a potential criminal record.

He said: “The whole tone of the letter was frightening and threatening and I wrote to them again to explain this and that I found the £80 fine to be excessive for an underpayment of 70p and to reconsider their position.

"They wrote back and said that they maintained I was a fare evader and travelled with the intention of not paying the correct fare.”

The deadline for paying the fine has now passed and Mr Dickson said he is prepared to go to court and state that he did not intend to pay the wrong fare.

He added: “I feel that I have to stand up to these people and hopefully common sense will prevail.

“I would mind less if it was a really efficient service, but customers are being packed onto these trains like sardines.”

A spokesman for Northern Rail said: “We are committed to a firm but fair approach in preventing and reducing fare evasion on our services, and in order to do this, we must have a consistent approach.

“Mr Dickson is a regular traveller between Lostock and Manchester Piccadilly. On this occasion he made that journey but on arriving at Manchester Piccadilly asked for a ticket from Bolton.

"The railway byelaws clearly state that you must have a ticket which is valid for the journey you intend to make.

"In this case, the ticket he purchased from Bolton to Manchester did not cover the full journey or fare.”