FARE dodging on the Tyne and Wear Metro system has been halved since the launch of a crackdown last summer.

Operator Nexus says the campaign, which has included the doubling of the penalty for evasion to £20 and the naming of offenders, is proving successful.

Since July last year, fraud levels have gone down by 50 per cent and operations by ticket inspection teams have reduced fare dodging by up to 75 per cent.

Nexus commercial director Andy Bairstow said: "The name and shame campaign continues in all of our stations, in the Press and by word of mouth, and has become a very effective fraud deterrent.

"One of the many benefits of this is that research tells us that people's propensity to defraud us is going down.

"Before last summer, more than 30 per cent of our users were happy not to pay if they could get away with it.

"Now, that number has halved, meaning we are getting the message across that fare evaders will be caught and prosecuted."

Nexus hopes to reduce evasion by another third in the next year and will use handheld computers to check names and addresses within three seconds, making it easier and quicker to issue fines and identify persistent cheats.