The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Jonathan Paul Burrows, a managing director at BlackRock Asset Management Investor Services, from performing regulated functions after he was caught evading
train fares on his journey to London.
Burrows admitted to the FCA that he had evaded his train fare on several occasions and that he did so in the knowledge he was breaking the law. The FCA says it “does not consider that this is fit and proper behaviour for an approved person”.
“Burrows held a senior position within the financial services industry,” says Tracey McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement and financial crime. “His conduct fell short of the standards we expect. Approved persons must act with honesty and integrity at all times and, where they do not, we will take action.”
Burrows was stopped by a revenue protection officer at the exit gates of London Cannon Street Station on November 19, 2013 and found not to have a ticket for his entire journey from Stonegate in East Sussex. He was interviewed under caution and admitted to evading his train fares on several occasions.
The story generated considerable press coverage in the UK after the railway operator, Southeastern, said that a then-unnamed commuter, later reported to be Burrows, had offered to pay £43,000 (€54,000) in an out-of-court settlement over a dispute about fare evasion. The company had calculated the sum as the total fare he had evaded over five years.
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