Serial rail fare evader faces jail over 112 unpaid tickets

One of Britain’s most prolific rail fare dodgers could face prison after pleading guilty to dozens of travel offences.

Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard Charles Brohiri, 29, pleaded guilty to traveling on a Govia Thameslink train journey without a ticket on a total of 112 occasions.

May be ordered to pay The court was told outstanding fees and legal costs amounted to more than £18,000.

District Judge Nina Tempia warned that Brohiri “could face a prison sentence due to the number of crimes he has committed”.

Brohiri, from Hatfield in Hertfordshire, He wore black as he pleaded guilty to 76 crimes on Thursday.

Each crime was read to him, and Brohiri answered “Guilty” silently and repeatedly for about 20 minutes.

This came after he was convicted in the absence of 36 charges at an earlier hearing.

At Thursday’s hearing, Judge Tempia rejected a bid by Brohiri’s lawyers to overturn the 36 convictions.

The authorities argued that the prosecutions were unlawful because they were initiated by an ordinary prosecutor and not by a qualified lawyer.

However, Judge Tempia rejected the claim, saying there was “no abuse of the court’s process”.

In the written decision explaining his decision, he said that he accepted that “a lay prosecutor could initiate the case.”

The official added that “unauthorized employees have been used industry-wide to provide information, which has been a long-standing process.”

A Govia Thameslink Railway spokesman welcomed the upholding of 36 previous convictions.

The 112 charges date from February 2024 to November 2025. These relate to journeys between London and Brighton and to Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire via Thameslink lines.

In addition, Brohiri is also accused of continuing to evade charges in late November and December last year, prosecutor Lyndon Harris told the court in January.

He said the last allegation was three days ago, on January 12.

At a previous hearing in August last year, Brohiri was granted bail and told “not to be on board or attempt to access any train owned or operated by Govia Thameslink”.

He was released on bail with the same conditions applied at previous hearings and returned to serve his sentence on 11 February.

He is also accused of failing to pay fines of £48,682 arising from separate cases brought between August 2019 and April 2025.