THE STUDENT WHO became an internet sensation after he was filmed being thrown off a train following a row with the ticket collector has claimed he had a ticket for the journey.
Sam Main, 19 and from Falkirk, was filmed being thrown off a train in Scotland by the ‘Big Man’, a passenger who got fed-up with Main’s apparent reluctance to show his ticket to the ticket collector aboard the ScotRail service.
The ‘train vigilante’ has been named as Alan Pollock, a financial manager at one of the world’s biggest asset firms, according to the Telegraph, and he is now the subject of a police complaint. Although it is not clear who has complained to the British Transport Police over the incident.
The video has now achieved over 1 million hits on YouTube. Watch:
(YouTube: ianhems)
In interviews with Sky News and other media outlets, Main, who sustained cuts and bruises to his face, has insisted he had bought a ticket for the Edinburgh to Perth service on 9 December but was mistakenly sold two singles in the same direction.
He said he tried to explain the issue to the ticket collector, “but he wasn’t willing to listen. There was no progression – it wasn’t an argument. It just completely erupted and then I felt myself getting thrown off the train.”
The student admitted he had been drinking before the incident but he was not drunk, BBC News reports. Main, who is diabetic, also admitted to swearing at the conductor.
His father Lenny is looking for Pollock to be charged over the incident. BTP did not say who made the complaint while ScotRail has said it is investigating.
