An Ipswich woman has been told to pay out almost £500 for travelling without a train ticket which would have cost her £14.

Pamela Hossack, 36, of Hampton Road in the Suffolk town, was found guilty of failing to hand over a valid ticket to ticket inspectors.

The offence relates to a 30-minute journey Hossack took on September 8 last year from Kelvedon in Essex to Ipswich on a Greater Anglia service.

She was convicted on March 27 at St Albans Magistrates’ Court of not buying a ticket and intending to avoid doing so.

Magistrates at the court in Hertfordshire ordered Hossack to pay out a total of £497.10, about 35 times what the original ticket would have cost.

This sum is made up of £14.10 for the ticket, a £220 fine, £88 in the form of a victim surcharge and £175 in court costs.

This total was to be paid by April 24.

A collection order was to be made, according to a court listing.