A MAN will have to pay nearly £700 for a train ticket which should have cost less than £35.

Meshach John Stephens, of Chaldecott Gardens, Bournemouth, was proved to have travelled on a railway in Taunton on October 12, 2021, without paying the fare of £34.90.

He was not present at North Somerset Magistrates’ Court for sentencing.

Court papers state the 24-year-old travelled on a railway, namely the Great Western Railway, without paying the fare with intent to avoid payment.

Magistrates fined the defendant £440 for the offence and ordered him to pay compensation of £34.90.

He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £44 and costs of £180.