A court ruling has paved the way for thousands of train fare evasion prosecutions to be voided.

Four train companies, including Northern Rail and Greater Anglia, brought prosecutions against thousands of passengers using the single justice procedure (SJP), despite not being permitted to do so.

In a ruling at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Judge Paul Goldspring said “they should never have been brought through”.

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“Parliament did not envisage these offences being prosecuted” through the mechanism, he added.

The judge said in June that the prosecutions were “probably unlawful”, a statement train companies said they agreed with.

Using the SJP allowed firms to fast-track prosecutions and have them behind closed doors. The procedure was introduced in 2015 for minor offences in magistrates’ courts

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The exact number of SJP prosecutions is unknown, with Judge Goldspring guessing “over 74,000”.

Only six test cases in Thursday’s hearing have been quashed so far.

The remaining tens of thousands will be identified and contacted by train firms, the Department for Transport and the Courts and Tribunals Service. This process will begin in November.

Greater Anglia said it wished to “apologise unreservedly” to those affected and acknowledged “a series of significant errors”.

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Northern Rail said, “We welcome the judgment of the chief magistrate in court today. We would like to apologise again for the errors that have occurred.”

While four companies are believed to be involved the judge said he could not name them.

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