The British prime minister's wife, Cherie Blair -- on her way to work as a judge -- has been fined ten pounds fifteen dollars for travelling on a train without a ticket.

Mrs Blair said the ticket office had been closed and the ticket machine would not take a credit card or some Portuguese currency she had in her purse after returning this week from holiday.

At her destination, north of London, she admitted to a railways inspector she'd travelled without a ticket and he imposed the on-the-spot penalty.

A spokesman for Mrs Blair said she was happy to pay up as everyone else has to on these occasions.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service