The transport secretary, Louise Haigh, is right: innocent people should never feel like criminals for merely buying a ticket

There are a number of things that made Northern’s attempts to prosecute Sam Williamson for rail fare evasion seem a bit off. One was that he, er, had a ticket – one that was marked “anytime”. There were, it transpired, some limits on when he could use that ticket – his 16-25 railcard magically transformed that “anytime” ticket into a “not any time, actually” one. (There had been no such limits when he’d used it just a week earlier, because it had been summer.) But none of this was made clear at the point when he’d bought that ticket.

Then there’s the fact that when Williamson discovered what he described as an “innocent mistake”, he offered to pay the difference. The revenue protection officer – the change from “ticket inspector” is surely telling in itself – who checked his ticket did not allow it. But what really makes prosecution a bit OTT is quite how much revenue Northern had lost through all this: £1.90. You can’t get a coffee for that. No matter. He seemed set to go to court.

Jonn Elledge is an author and former assistant editor of the New Statesman