Dogged OAP wins landmark £25m legal battle for 1.4m train passengers

A pensioner who takes on retail giants has single handedly won a landmark legal battle on behalf of up to 1.4m train commuters.

Justin Gutmann, 76, secured £25m from Stagecoach South Western Trains - the largest ever compensation package paid out from collective action in the UK. His epic legal battle claimed passengers with a Travelcard covering the underground may have been overcharged for onward journeys out of London.

And the retired market researcher - who has opted out of claiming back money himself despite being eligible - is only just getting started. He's got his eye on other train providers, as part of his mission to reverse the UK's “failed regulatory systems”.

READ MORE: The Greater Manchester MPs who got the most free football tickets and other gifts

And he has begun a £3bn claim against Vodafone, EE, Three and O2, and a £853million claim against Apple. The settlement with Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited was reached in March 2024 without any admission of liability.

Victorious Justin, from Ilkestone, Derby, a consumer rights campaigner, said: “Ultimately regulation has failed in this country and that’s a tragedy. It's not about a nanny state – we do have lots of regulation but it’s light touch regulation – meaning no one takes action.

“Especially now with large denationalised monopolies and tech monopolies, it’s become much harder for consumers to get a fair deal – we are drinking in the last chance saloon.”

The grandad-of-one spent years working in market research and market planning while his last job before retiring in 2016 was at the Citizens Advice Bureau. Justin said the issue was "hiding in plain sight" and noticed a few years before the 2015 Civil Rights Act came in which allowed for claiming against any product of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described.

His legal claim centred around people who had a Travelcard - which allows them to unlimited travel within certain locations. He argued passengers who held one, and purchased a rail ticket originating in London may have overpaid for part of their journey when travelling beyond zones already covered by their card.

For example, if a rail passenger owned a Zones 1-4 Travelcard but needed to travel from Waterloo to Reading, they should be able to purchase a fare from the edge of Zone 4 - already covered by the card - to Reading, rather than a whole journey from their central London starting point. He said they had already paid for the part of their journey that covers Zones 1-4 by purchasing a Travelcard.

Justin argued passengers travelling on the South West Trains network - at the time known as Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited - were not sufficiently offered this option, which is known as a ‘Boundary Fare.’ Some customers were therefore being overcharged for part of their journeys, he said.

He believes that his case would have been “very easily solved” by a statement in the franchising agreement informing customers about boundary fares. “That would have been the end of it, and there are lots of cases like it,” he said.

Justin brought the case to The Competition Appeal Tribunal with Charles Lyndon, a litigation firm with expertise in competition law and Woodsford Group - a specialist litigation funder. Justin said: “I’m very pleased that Stagecoach South Western have agreed to pay out.

"It’s a great day for consumers and I look forward to the other cases winning in court or settling some time for the future."

But Justin is not stopping there and already has several other companies in the cross hairs, including Thameslink, Southern Railway, Gatwick Express, and Great Northern Railway – for similar alleged infractions. “Today we are celebrating - we don’t know how other cases will go – as it’s the first case of its kind to win," he said.

Justin is also launching a £3bn claim against mobile phone companies for charging customers after they have paid out for the value of their phone in their contracts. He is also taking action against tech giant Apple for £850m – despite having never owned an iPhone.

The case relates to the alleged slowing down of iPhone’s performance by hiding a power management tool.

For the train claim, anyone who held a Travelcard and travelled on South West Trains between 1 October 2015 and 20 August 2017 could be entitled to compensation. Passengers who no longer have evidence of their Travelcard or specific journeys may still be eligible to collect their share.

Passengers can check if they qualify at boundaryfares.com/Claim. The deadline to claim compensation is 10 January 2025.

A spokesperson for South Western Railway, which took over the South Western Trains Limited franchise in 2017 said: "The settlement was between Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited and the class representative (not South Western Railway) and relates to a period before South Western Railway started operations. Therefore, we have no comment to make."