TRAIN passengers are always complaining about the cost of rail travel in this country.

Well, how about a Taunton man whose trip put him back more than £650 when it should only have cost £10.50?

But Thomaz Abbott has only himself to blame for attempting to sneak onto the train without a ticket.

Abbott, 32, of Gladstone Street, Taunton, was nabbed at the town's station last July.

His not-so-clever ruse ended up costing him a £440 fine, £10.40 compensation, £44 victim surcharge and £160 costs at Taunton Magistrates' Courts.

Abbott wasn't in court when sentence was passed down on Monday for his attempts to cheat Great Western Railway, but the case against him was proved in his absence.

It is not clear where he was travelling to or from.