A WORCESTERSHIRE bus company has come under fire after removing its monthly child ticket for youngsters in Redditch.
Diamond Buses admitted that the decision to only make the change in Redditch and not the rest of the county has resulted in a ‘huge backlash’.
With its removal, it means children will have to pay around £20 more each month by forking out for weekly tickets instead.
A spokesperson for Diamond Buses said: “The decision was taken to remove the child monthly ticket due to the fraudulent use experienced around this particular product.
“Following a number of monitoring exercises we found a high level of fraud amongst school children sharing M-tickets on mobile devices, which needed to be curtailed quickly.
“We have been working with schools and local law enforcement to find solutions to address this issue.
“If these solutions are robust enough to prevent further fraud, then the child monthly ticket will be re-introduced.”
Diamond added that it hopes the child ticket will return sometime next month.
In the meantime it has also allowed children to purchase the adult monthly product.
“However new security measures introduced on our app, require the M-ticket holder to have internet data available on their mobile in order to validate their ticket.”