Expense-fiddling and backhanders occur in all walks of life and transport is not immune. Employers should always be vigilant
Fraud can permeate itself throughout organisations
Of all the news stories doing the rounds, the alleged expenses fiddle and CV exaggeration saga involving chancellor Rachel Reeves fascinates me. Last week, the BBC released a detailed investigation it had undertaken, exposing her and three other colleagues, including her boss, of showering each other with gifts and benefiting from dubious expense claims. Reeves denies the allegations.
I’m enthralled by the ‘Rachel from Accounts’ story because I’ve seen it play out in transport during my career. The crux of the issue with Reeves is also about her need to be a ‘role model’ as a person of authority and uphold the highest standards – but allegedly failing to do so. Across our sector, we see copious examples of role model behaviours and areas for improvement.
Let’s start with expenses. At various stages in my career, I’ve heard several tales in transport regarding expense fiddling and credit card fraud. My ears have pricked up at stories of industry leaders that have become so untouchable, having risen the ranks of power and surrounded themselves with fawning brown-nosers telling them how great they are, that they have embarked on an uncontrollable spending spree. Tales of rampant and varied misuse unknowingly funded by their employers – all turned a blind eye to by the poor finance director who reports to the bullying expense fiddler and is too intimidated to question it, or the person in charge having such a hold on their employer that they ignore the situation until it is totally out of control. It’s an issue that admittedly besets all industries, but it would be naïve to claim that transport is immune.
There is a sense of entitlement among many of these well-remunerated transport fat cats
The problem is that this rapacious temptation to misuse company money, if unchecked at the earliest stage, is something that senior leaders give into. Some folk, generally those who have found themselves in a position of power with rapidity, are unable to comprehend that they have been bequeathed a company credit card that enables them to spend money – they gradually succumb to temptation and funnel as much of their everyday expense onto it. Quite often, they move from job to job in quick succession, committing the same behaviour patterns despite it being their downfall in previous employment. What starts as a seemingly innocuous habit can turn into an illness.
There is a sense of entitlement among many of these well-remunerated transport fat cats. When entering a relationship with an employer, they think that this means they can act with impunity, particularly if they are the boss, sometimes brazenly. I even find that some justify lavish expenditure that is close to or crosses a line because they work ‘such long hours’, or because it’s payback because last year’s bonus wasn’t what they expected or there is going to be a pay freeze. Some don’t bother trying to keep travel costs down – thinking nothing of peak time travel out of London to far-flung parts of the country, where a slightly earlier or later train might save a couple of hundred quid.
Consultants are blameworthy, too. I have had bottles of water, a bacon bap, 30p visit to the toilets at Blackburn bus station and a can of coke regularly shoved on invoices to me for work paying over the course of an assignment several thousand pounds, or mileage claims without even the barest of details on them. I’ve also experienced such varied interpretations of the term ‘overnight subsistence’ among consultants for an overnight stay, ranging from £5 to nearly £100, and some even tried to claim lunches! It’s as though these people don’t eat or make phone calls while staying home! Beware of greedy consultants who clock-watch and put every minute on their bill!
Folk giggle at me staying in £20 a night dosshouses or enjoying a Tesco value meal deal as my evening meal when working away. However, whilst they are living it up in their all-expenses paid five-star hotels on business or enjoying £30 meal allowances, I am either having as a consultant to fund it myself or if the client is doing so, I genuinely don’t believe I need them (and by default their customers) to incur the cost of a luxury that I don’t need. Last weekend, I felt incredible satisfaction and delight staying in a tiny but clean and perfectly located room in the Garth Hotel, five minutes from Euston station, for only £31, so I could catch the first train to Liverpool the next morning for a 09:00 meeting.
I’ve also heard tales over the years of transport top brass using company money to fund hotels in midweek for the sole purpose of trysts with their lovers, or taking a sudden active interest in conferences, events or programmes such as safety tours at far-flung overseas locations, just so it can be the conduit for their own personal pursuit of fun. Again, I’m sure it is rife in other sectors too. Another ruse I’ve been suspicious of is when an organisation suddenly pursues a non-sensical acquisition or partnership in glamorous international territories where transport opportunities barely exist, but the place just happens to be the holiday destination of choice of the senior leader and an opportunity to combine the time and cost with family trips.
‘Benchmarking’ is also the ‘go to’ explanation on the expenses claim form for trips around the world, hopping on and off buses, trains and trams with fellow industry professionals – note these sojourns are always to glamorous, scenic parts of the world, rather than the rough inner-city slums. “Transport tourists” is how one very cynical industry professional described them to me recently when we were trying to plan a meeting abroad but limit the numbers. Visits to bus manufacturers always make my eyebrows rise, though not as much as instances whereby those in charge enjoy expeditions in their last few weeks to exotic locations on the other side of the world, making decisions on the design and procurement of new vehicles, that could wait till their successor joins. Are these jollies as urgent and necessary as they are made out?
Fraud can permeate organisations, and internal audit departments are always fairly busy. I’ll never forget working in a transport customer relations department when we uncovered a wholesale scam involving a hugely trusted employee with an unblemished record flogging long-distance free tickets across an extended network of communities. I also recall being stunned when discovering a coach driver I relied on tampering with credit card readers to redirect customer transactions into his own pocket. Over my years managing railway stations, fraud among ticket office staff was rife, whilst it’s sadly commonly accepted that one benefit of contactless payment on buses is that it reduces cash handling ‘discrepancies’ among drivers.
‘Now Alex, what am I going to get in return for all this business if you get what I’m saying?’
Integrity transcends misuse of the company expense policy despite anti-bribery and corruption policies. As a consultant, I’ve been on the receiving end of nefarious antics from clients. I was once invited mid-afternoon by a senior rail industry employee to one of the most exclusive West End private members clubs, where cabinet members and celebrities hang out. Whilst quaffing wine and asking if I could fill 10 vacant posts, he looked me in the eye, winked, and said with a grin that made me puzzled if he was genuinely joking or not,
“Now Alex, what am I going to get in return for all this business if you get what I’m saying?”.
A few years ago, a managing director within an owning group once asked me to “split the margin” on a role I was recruiting for him. So, too, an interim consultant in a position of power, working for a public sector organisation, hurriedly said, “If you make £300, I’ll have £150”. I won’t forget someone once taking me aside and saying, “in return for all the work I might be giving you, perhaps my wife can go on a retainer through the company I have set up for her small business”.
I often hear of some suppliers in very matey positions of power with senior folk and bequeathed great swathes of work without a proper audit trail or of them being asked to provide gifts in return for services rendered. All this is not quite on a par with tales of senior transport employees being imprisoned for creating fake invoices to their own family company and paying themselves into this account (it’s happened on a few occasions, as it does across all walks of business).
It’s really important that there’s a big stigma among those who are indulging in dodgy practices. When I was at Royal Mail, one reason why instances of postal workers tampering with mail was actually so rare was because it was viewed as the most despicable act possible. If you were helping yourself to the contents of parcels or envelopes, the suspicion would fall on all posties in the Mail Centre or Delivery Office and you were also jeopardising the integrity of the 500-year-old Royal Mail brand and job security for all. Those involved in dishonest acts were ostracised and treated as pariahs. I must also add that it wasn’t until two decades into my 32-year career that I ever received any guidance around corruption from an employer, until I was at Royal Mail when in 2013, I received anti-bribery and ethics training, which was the most comprehensive and impactful, far more than anything I have observed in public transport.
It’s really disappointing that many companies choose the strictest confidence to exit those who have acted corruptly, preferring Non-Disclosure Agreements rather than prosecution, believing it risks the reputation of the business. Hushing up aberrations to avoid corporate embarrassment is too often the order of the day, though I take the opposite view that it demonstrates a tough organisation which respects those who play by the rules and won’t tolerate those who don’t. The quiet compromise agreement is so unfair to colleagues who are appalled by the behaviour of those responsible for fraudulent activity.
Line managers need to be savvier, even if they are based far away. I recall not many years ago undertaking a consultancy assignment at a large transport company and being so concerned about poor behaviours that were unravelling unchecked because those in charge were based so far away, they were completely oblivious as to what was going on. Even basic checks of expense forms before signing them off are a step in the right direction – the problem is managers feel embarrassed querying claims as it suggests that they don’t trust someone who they may have a strong and longstanding working relationship with.
There’s no easy solution. What is needed, though, is much more audible training for senior leaders around ethics, anti-bribery and corruption policies, alongside those in charge calling out expense and other indiscretions and taking punitive action. There needs to be a drift away from NDAs and trying to hush up situations where the line has been crossed, as well as better scrutiny when making senior appointments, around moral fibre, as well as talking to others in the industry to see if there are any skeletons in cupboards. Everyone in a position of power needs, first and foremost, to be a role model. They also must be under no illusions that no one is bigger than the company, or the law.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alex Warner has over 30 years’ experience in the transport sector, having held senior roles on a multi-modal basis across the sector. He is co-founder of transport technology business Lost Group and transport consultancy AJW Experience Group (which includes Great Scenic Journeys). He is also chair of West Midlands Grand Rail Collaboration.
This story appears inside the latest issue of Passenger Transport.
Call out corruption and don’t cover it up
by Passenger Transport on Feb 21, 2025 • 12:02 pm No CommentsExpense-fiddling and backhanders occur in all walks of life and transport is not immune. Employers should always be vigilant
Of all the news stories doing the rounds, the alleged expenses fiddle and CV exaggeration saga involving chancellor Rachel Reeves fascinates me. Last week, the BBC released a detailed investigation it had undertaken, exposing her and three other colleagues, including her boss, of showering each other with gifts and benefiting from dubious expense claims. Reeves denies the allegations.
I’m enthralled by the ‘Rachel from Accounts’ story because I’ve seen it play out in transport during my career. The crux of the issue with Reeves is also about her need to be a ‘role model’ as a person of authority and uphold the highest standards – but allegedly failing to do so. Across our sector, we see copious examples of role model behaviours and areas for improvement.
Let’s start with expenses. At various stages in my career, I’ve heard several tales in transport regarding expense fiddling and credit card fraud. My ears have pricked up at stories of industry leaders that have become so untouchable, having risen the ranks of power and surrounded themselves with fawning brown-nosers telling them how great they are, that they have embarked on an uncontrollable spending spree. Tales of rampant and varied misuse unknowingly funded by their employers – all turned a blind eye to by the poor finance director who reports to the bullying expense fiddler and is too intimidated to question it, or the person in charge having such a hold on their employer that they ignore the situation until it is totally out of control. It’s an issue that admittedly besets all industries, but it would be naïve to claim that transport is immune.
The problem is that this rapacious temptation to misuse company money, if unchecked at the earliest stage, is something that senior leaders give into. Some folk, generally those who have found themselves in a position of power with rapidity, are unable to comprehend that they have been bequeathed a company credit card that enables them to spend money – they gradually succumb to temptation and funnel as much of their everyday expense onto it. Quite often, they move from job to job in quick succession, committing the same behaviour patterns despite it being their downfall in previous employment. What starts as a seemingly innocuous habit can turn into an illness.
There is a sense of entitlement among many of these well-remunerated transport fat cats. When entering a relationship with an employer, they think that this means they can act with impunity, particularly if they are the boss, sometimes brazenly. I even find that some justify lavish expenditure that is close to or crosses a line because they work ‘such long hours’, or because it’s payback because last year’s bonus wasn’t what they expected or there is going to be a pay freeze. Some don’t bother trying to keep travel costs down – thinking nothing of peak time travel out of London to far-flung parts of the country, where a slightly earlier or later train might save a couple of hundred quid.
Consultants are blameworthy, too. I have had bottles of water, a bacon bap, 30p visit to the toilets at Blackburn bus station and a can of coke regularly shoved on invoices to me for work paying over the course of an assignment several thousand pounds, or mileage claims without even the barest of details on them. I’ve also experienced such varied interpretations of the term ‘overnight subsistence’ among consultants for an overnight stay, ranging from £5 to nearly £100, and some even tried to claim lunches! It’s as though these people don’t eat or make phone calls while staying home! Beware of greedy consultants who clock-watch and put every minute on their bill!
Folk giggle at me staying in £20 a night dosshouses or enjoying a Tesco value meal deal as my evening meal when working away. However, whilst they are living it up in their all-expenses paid five-star hotels on business or enjoying £30 meal allowances, I am either having as a consultant to fund it myself or if the client is doing so, I genuinely don’t believe I need them (and by default their customers) to incur the cost of a luxury that I don’t need. Last weekend, I felt incredible satisfaction and delight staying in a tiny but clean and perfectly located room in the Garth Hotel, five minutes from Euston station, for only £31, so I could catch the first train to Liverpool the next morning for a 09:00 meeting.
I’ve also heard tales over the years of transport top brass using company money to fund hotels in midweek for the sole purpose of trysts with their lovers, or taking a sudden active interest in conferences, events or programmes such as safety tours at far-flung overseas locations, just so it can be the conduit for their own personal pursuit of fun. Again, I’m sure it is rife in other sectors too. Another ruse I’ve been suspicious of is when an organisation suddenly pursues a non-sensical acquisition or partnership in glamorous international territories where transport opportunities barely exist, but the place just happens to be the holiday destination of choice of the senior leader and an opportunity to combine the time and cost with family trips.
‘Benchmarking’ is also the ‘go to’ explanation on the expenses claim form for trips around the world, hopping on and off buses, trains and trams with fellow industry professionals – note these sojourns are always to glamorous, scenic parts of the world, rather than the rough inner-city slums. “Transport tourists” is how one very cynical industry professional described them to me recently when we were trying to plan a meeting abroad but limit the numbers. Visits to bus manufacturers always make my eyebrows rise, though not as much as instances whereby those in charge enjoy expeditions in their last few weeks to exotic locations on the other side of the world, making decisions on the design and procurement of new vehicles, that could wait till their successor joins. Are these jollies as urgent and necessary as they are made out?
Fraud can permeate organisations, and internal audit departments are always fairly busy. I’ll never forget working in a transport customer relations department when we uncovered a wholesale scam involving a hugely trusted employee with an unblemished record flogging long-distance free tickets across an extended network of communities. I also recall being stunned when discovering a coach driver I relied on tampering with credit card readers to redirect customer transactions into his own pocket. Over my years managing railway stations, fraud among ticket office staff was rife, whilst it’s sadly commonly accepted that one benefit of contactless payment on buses is that it reduces cash handling ‘discrepancies’ among drivers.
Integrity transcends misuse of the company expense policy despite anti-bribery and corruption policies. As a consultant, I’ve been on the receiving end of nefarious antics from clients. I was once invited mid-afternoon by a senior rail industry employee to one of the most exclusive West End private members clubs, where cabinet members and celebrities hang out. Whilst quaffing wine and asking if I could fill 10 vacant posts, he looked me in the eye, winked, and said with a grin that made me puzzled if he was genuinely joking or not,
“Now Alex, what am I going to get in return for all this business if you get what I’m saying?”.
A few years ago, a managing director within an owning group once asked me to “split the margin” on a role I was recruiting for him. So, too, an interim consultant in a position of power, working for a public sector organisation, hurriedly said, “If you make £300, I’ll have £150”. I won’t forget someone once taking me aside and saying, “in return for all the work I might be giving you, perhaps my wife can go on a retainer through the company I have set up for her small business”.
I often hear of some suppliers in very matey positions of power with senior folk and bequeathed great swathes of work without a proper audit trail or of them being asked to provide gifts in return for services rendered. All this is not quite on a par with tales of senior transport employees being imprisoned for creating fake invoices to their own family company and paying themselves into this account (it’s happened on a few occasions, as it does across all walks of business).
It’s really important that there’s a big stigma among those who are indulging in dodgy practices. When I was at Royal Mail, one reason why instances of postal workers tampering with mail was actually so rare was because it was viewed as the most despicable act possible. If you were helping yourself to the contents of parcels or envelopes, the suspicion would fall on all posties in the Mail Centre or Delivery Office and you were also jeopardising the integrity of the 500-year-old Royal Mail brand and job security for all. Those involved in dishonest acts were ostracised and treated as pariahs. I must also add that it wasn’t until two decades into my 32-year career that I ever received any guidance around corruption from an employer, until I was at Royal Mail when in 2013, I received anti-bribery and ethics training, which was the most comprehensive and impactful, far more than anything I have observed in public transport.
It’s really disappointing that many companies choose the strictest confidence to exit those who have acted corruptly, preferring Non-Disclosure Agreements rather than prosecution, believing it risks the reputation of the business. Hushing up aberrations to avoid corporate embarrassment is too often the order of the day, though I take the opposite view that it demonstrates a tough organisation which respects those who play by the rules and won’t tolerate those who don’t. The quiet compromise agreement is so unfair to colleagues who are appalled by the behaviour of those responsible for fraudulent activity.
Line managers need to be savvier, even if they are based far away. I recall not many years ago undertaking a consultancy assignment at a large transport company and being so concerned about poor behaviours that were unravelling unchecked because those in charge were based so far away, they were completely oblivious as to what was going on. Even basic checks of expense forms before signing them off are a step in the right direction – the problem is managers feel embarrassed querying claims as it suggests that they don’t trust someone who they may have a strong and longstanding working relationship with.
There’s no easy solution. What is needed, though, is much more audible training for senior leaders around ethics, anti-bribery and corruption policies, alongside those in charge calling out expense and other indiscretions and taking punitive action. There needs to be a drift away from NDAs and trying to hush up situations where the line has been crossed, as well as better scrutiny when making senior appointments, around moral fibre, as well as talking to others in the industry to see if there are any skeletons in cupboards. Everyone in a position of power needs, first and foremost, to be a role model. They also must be under no illusions that no one is bigger than the company, or the law.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alex Warner has over 30 years’ experience in the transport sector, having held senior roles on a multi-modal basis across the sector. He is co-founder of transport technology business Lost Group and transport consultancy AJW Experience Group (which includes Great Scenic Journeys). He is also chair of West Midlands Grand Rail Collaboration.
This story appears inside the latest issue of Passenger Transport.
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