Something that we haven't touched on is how much you should worry about a conviction.
If you are convicted (that is, you go to court, and either you plead guilty or you are found guilty) then you will receive a punishment. In practical terms, that punishment will be paying over some money, and will be made up of the fine, the other side's costs, a 'victim surcharge' (a payment towards the costs of the court) and 'compensation' to the other side (the train fare that should have been paid). I can't tell you how much these will add up to, but in a recent thread (
https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...-at-magistrates-court-without-knowing.208014/) the total was £680. Most people seemed to think that that was at the high end of what could be charged.
In the original post, you told us that a lawyer would charge you £750 to write to the court to try and stop the matter going to court. I don't know how effective lawyers' letters are in stopping a case going to court, but it looks as if it might actually be cheaper to go to court and pay the fine.
But if you do go to court and lose you would have a 'criminal record'. Let's look at what that means.
The consequences can be a little bit different depending on whether you are convicted under the Regulation of the Railways Act ('RoRA'), or under the railway byelaws. This is because the law says that for most (not all, but most) purposes convictions become 'spent' after a while. As I understand it, a conviction under RoRA becomes spent after a year. There's some debate on this forum over when a byelaw conviction becomes spent: some people think that it becomes spent immediately, while other people think that it may not be spent for a year. Either way, it's no longer than a year.
What does this mean? In practice, if you're applying for a job, or for anything like a job (maybe a college course, or being a volunteer) then while the conviction isn't spent, if they ask you about whether you have any convictions then you have to tell them. But just because you have a conviction, that doesn't mean that they will turn you down. The conviction means that you made a mistake. Most probably, you have learnt from your mistake and won't do it again. Things might be different if you have lots of convictions or if you lie about having a conviction, as that would suggest that you don't care about following the law - but one conviction for not having the right railway ticket won't always be a problem.
There are a couple of exceptions to what I've just said, and they can overlap:
- there are some jobs where an employer will want to know that an employee is absolutely to be trusted. These include things where you will be handling money (so jobs in banks and shops and so on) or when someone vulnerable depends entirely on you (this could mean things like working in someone's house as a carer). In these cases, the employer would have a reason for not taking on someone who had even one conviction.
- and there are some jobs where convictions do not become spent - you always have to tell the employer about a conviction, however old. These include medical jobs and some jobs in the civil service. But again, just because you have to tell an employer about a conviction, that doesn't automatically mean that they won't take you on.
In short, a conviction for fare evasion isn't the end of the world. People carry on with their lives despite having a conviction. So even if you do end up convicted, life can carry on.
however I shouldn’t have been abusive
