A woman fined for travelling without a train ticket found out about her prosecution in the Examiner.

Emma Bhatti, of Bradford Road in Fartown, appeared at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

She was convicted in her absence of boarding a train without a valid ticket.

The offence was said to have taken place in Huddersfield on December 13 last year.

Bhatti told magistrates that she only discovered that she had a conviction when a friend read about it in the Court In Brief section of the newspaper.

They allowed her to make a statutory declaration to say that she didn’t know about the proceedings, cancelling any payments she owed.

The 30-year-old pleaded not guilty to the offence as she claims that she was not travelling that day and that someone else gave her personal details.

Her case was adjourned until July 27 when a prosecutor for the railway operator will be present at court.