Fake conductor arrested on train

A MAN has been arrested for pretending to be a ticket conductor on a train.

The 26-year-old had been walking up the aisles of a train travelling between Narbonne and Bordeaux dressed in the SNCF uniform.

His solicitor told the tribunal in Toulouse that his client had dressed up in the SNCF uniform, “not because he wanted to travel for free, but because he dreamed of being a conductor.”

However, the dream came to an end when an actual controller stopped him and asked him where he had trained and he was subsequently arrested when the service stopped at Toulouse and charged with theft and fraud.

The court was told that the man had travelled under this disguise thousands of times after he failed to get a job with the SNCF.

“Since then, it’s become an obsession,” said his solicitor, adding that his client had even stolen a ticket hole punch, but had struggled to use it.

The man was already stopped and sentenced to four months in prison for the same crime in January this year.

His case was adjourned for a psychiatric report and he was released on conditional bail.

Photo: Flickr/Tor Lillqvist