The VW scandal is not the first time transport has been at the centre of a major scandal and is not even the latest. From vehicles that aren’t what they seem to unsporting behaviour and ticketing scams, here’s our Top 5 (worst) transport cheats.
1) The VW emissions scandal
VW’s attempt to rig emissions tests in the US, which involved the installation of software that could detect when cars were in a lab, has been labelled by one German newspaper as ‘the most expensive act of stupidity' in the history of the car industry. Estimates suggest it could cost tens of billions to put right.
VW has admitted cheating lab emissions tests
Despite this, emissions were only this month again part of a scandal in which four truck manufacturers were fined £2.46bn by the European Union for colluding on prices and passing on the costs of emissions-reducing technology.
2) What’s your emergency?
Recently, the North East Ambulance Service was surprised to hear of an ambulance ‘driving erratically’ at the Tyne Tunnel when it had no record of one of their vehicles being in the area at the time. Police later discovered that the vehicle in question was in fact a car in disguise - fitted by Shaun Scandle, its appropriately named driver, with blue lights and a siren. Scandle was fined £1,000 and given nine points on his licence for careless driving.
In another recent case, six men were jailed for a total of 94 years for smuggling ‘truly colossal’ quantities of Class A drugs into the UK in a fleet of fake ambulances. Two of the men charged stepped out of the ambulance wearing paramedic uniforms and were even accompanied by a patient on crutches, who later seemed to have forgotten about his injuries when he was spotted by officers walking normally.
3) Performance enhancing trains, buses and cars
During the 1904 Tour de France, described as ‘one of the most scandalous tours of all time’, nine riders were excluded because of illegal use of trains or cars. Of course, cheating on the Tour has taken many creative forms over the years, with cyclists on more than just trains.
It has also been alleged that some marathon runners have used buses and other forms of transport to improve their times, including Frederick Lorz who got a lift in his manager's car for eleven miles during the marathon at the 1904 Olympic Games but was disqualified after finishing first.
4) (No) Ticket to ride
Jonathon Burrows, said to be the owner of two country mansions worth a combined £4m, was caught out on his scam of paying just £7.20 a day for his commute from a rural station in East Sussex to London Bridge. After finding a loophole in the Oyster card system, Mr Burrows proceeded to use this dodge to make his journey, which allowed him to make estimated savings of £43,000 over five years.
More recently City banker Simon King lost his job after an £8,000 fare-dodging scam. He admitted photocopying his train season ticket, before returning it for a refund, on two separate occasions.
5) A long hop
In May, London mayor Sadiq Khan announced a partial introduction of his proposed one-hour ‘Hopper’ fare, allowing bus passengers a free second journey within one hour of the first.
But the new fare does not match the description in Mr Khan’s manifesto, in which he pledged to introduce ‘unlimited changes within an hour’. We’re not saying he was cheating, but Londoners are already planning to game the system by creating the longest possible routes – with the record so far at 35 miles – on the fare.
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