A DAD says he is faced with having to sacrifice food and rent as he could end up in prison after being taken to court over a train ticket fine.
Panashe Chidakwa, from Birmingham, was hit was an eye-watering £272 penalty over a £2.70 ticket as authorities claimed it was fraudulent.
The dad-of-one, 24, claims says he can't afford to pay the fine and has been told he could end up in jail.
He says he may end up having to "sacrifice" food, rent, bills or even nursery fees for his three-year-old son to be able to pay out the compensation, costs and fine to Birmingham Magistrates' Court.
Panashe bought a ticket from Longbridge to Kings Norton via an app in January and after struggling with the cost of living during the pandemic, decided to add a railcard to cut his fare down.
He was hit with a fine as train staff realised he didn't have a discount card.
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Panashe told BirminghamLive: "They're saying the train ticket I bought was fraudulent. I did say I would pay back the money.
"When I was in court it happened so quickly. I was just standing there and they were telling me the process.
"I said: 'Listen I'm already behind on bills, if you look at my credit score it's not good – we've just come from lockdown.
"These heartless people are throwing big amounts to people like me who are struggling with money it doesn't make sense and the worst part is I will probably be looking at prison time over a £2.70 train ticket."
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Panashe says he explained why he couldn't afford to pay the fine, but claims he was told by the court "you're probably looking at jail".
He added: "I will probably sacrifice rent or electricity. I'm already £3,000 behind.
"Then there are other bills, travel expenses and nursery fees for my son are £52 a day. There will be something I will sacrifice, my phone might get cut off.
"It's too much for me right now. People said when you grow up life is going to be hard – but I never expected it to be this hard.
"I'm just giving money away for free, that's what it feels like."
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The court has told him he must pay £272 by June 6, and the judicial press office said it could not comment on his individual case when contacted.
A spokeswoman said: "In regards to sentencing judges and magistrates sentence according to the facts of the case, which may have aggravating or mitigating factors and the sentencing guidelines which are set by the independent Sentencing Council and the law which is set by parliament."
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