Joseph Molloy, 53, admitted to 740 instances of “doughnutting” – a technique where a commuter buys tickets for only the start and end of a journey to bypass barriers, leaving a “hole” in payment for the middle section.

Over an 11-month period, the retired head of passive equity used false identities and illicit Jobcentre Plus discounts to travel from his £2 million Orpington home to Canary Wharf via Southeastern Railway.

During sentencing at Inner London Crown Court, the prosecution described the scheme as “sophisticated” in its planning and execution, The Times reports.

While Mr Molloy’s defence cited personal stress and bereavement as contributing factors, Recorder Alexander Stein noted that the defendant was a man of significant financial means who could easily have afforded the fares. Although the judge deemed the persistence of the fraud worthy of a custodial sentence, he ultimately handed down a ten-month sentence suspended for 18 months.

In addition to his suspended sentence, Mr Molloy was ordered to complete 80 hours of community work, pay £5,000 in compensation, and has been banned from using Southeastern Railway services for a year.

Following the hearing, the banker attempted to evade photographers by changing his clothes and vaulting a wall. The case comes as the rail industry, which loses an estimated £240 million annually to fare evasion, explores GPS tracking technology to close the loopholes exploited by such scams.