Fare evasion

[T001]

Hello,

A friend of mine was recently caught not having a ticket for their full journey. They were caught not having a valid full fare and subsequently interviewed under caution. I think they had paid for £25 of their ticket, the full price would have been £35-40. They were interviewed under caution, told they have committed an offence and to expect a letter in the post. My friend also confirmed to the inspector (when asked) that this was not the first time having done this (the total is 8 times but the inspector wasn't told the number of times). Based on the events, my friend wants to know:

1 - how long it will take for the letter of intention to prosecute (it has been 22 days since the incident) to arrive? If at all.
2 - What kind of fine is to be expected?
3 - Would this be expected to result in a criminal conviction?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Welcome to the forum. There's a separate section at https://www.railforums.co.uk/forums/disputes-prosecutions.152/ for this sort of question, so I've asked for this to be moved there.

The railway have up to six months to write to your friend - longer than that, and the railway run out of time to take the matter to court. Most likely, the first letter will ask for your friend's side of the story, and replying to that letter is a good opportunity for your friend to apologise, make it clear that they won't dodge their fare again, and offer to settle out of court.

Once the railway has heard from your friend, they will look at the information they hold and decide how to take matters forward. The information the railway has isn't just what their inspector collected and what your friend has sent them: it may also include details of previous tickets bought, because the railway is allowed to ask ticket sellers (Trainline and so on) about previous tickets that your friend has bought. So since the railway know that your friend was travelling from A to C but their ticket was only from A to B (or possibly from B to C), and that your friend has done it before, if they find that your friend had 8 previous A to B tickets they may conclude that your friend has done this 8 times before.

The railway may decide to prosecute your friend: if the railway thinks that this has happened 8 or 9 times, this is quite a likely result. Or they may offer an out of court settlement where your friend has to repay the train fares that they should have paid, plus the railway's costs of investigating the matter. Our general advice is that if an out of court settlement is offered, it's better to accept it, as it will probably be cheaper than going to court.

If the matter does go to court, your friend should expect a fine of around half a weeks to a weeks income. They will also have to pay court costs, prosecution costs and the train fare not paid. Your friend will not go to prison. But if your friend is prosecuted under the Regulation of Railways Act for intentionally not paying their fare, then the conviction will be recorded and be liable to show up on DBS searches and so on.

 

[gabrielhj07]

Hello,

A friend of mine was recently caught not having a ticket for their full journey. They were caught not having a valid full fare and subsequently interviewed under caution. I think they had paid for £25 of their ticket, the full price would have been £35-40. They were interviewed under caution, told they have committed an offence and to expect a letter in the post. My friend also confirmed to the inspector (when asked) that this was not the first time having done this (the total is 8 times but the inspector wasn't told the number of times). Based on the events, my friend wants to know:

1 - how long it will take for the letter of intention to prosecute (it has been 22 days since the incident) to arrive? If at all.
2 - What kind of fine is to be expected?
3 - Would this be expected to result in a criminal conviction?

Thank you for your time.

How did they mamage to pay £10 less for the same ticket illegally? Unless of course he had a ticket that didn't cover the full journey.

 

[T001]

How did they mamage to pay £10 less for the same ticket illegally? Unless of course he had a ticket that didn't cover the full journey.

Yes exactly that, they hadn’t paid for the full journey.

 

[gabrielhj07]

Ah ok, thanks for clarifying

 

[T001]

Welcome to the forum. There's a separate section at https://www.railforums.co.uk/forums/disputes-prosecutions.152/ for this sort of question, so I've asked for this to be moved there.

The railway have up to six months to write to your friend - longer than that, and the railway run out of time to take the matter to court. Most likely, the first letter will ask for your friend's side of the story, and replying to that letter is a good opportunity for your friend to apologise, make it clear that they won't dodge their fare again, and offer to settle out of court.

Once the railway has heard from your friend, they will look at the information they hold and decide how to take matters forward. The information the railway has isn't just what their inspector collected and what your friend has sent them: it may also include details of previous tickets bought, because the railway is allowed to ask ticket sellers (Trainline and so on) about previous tickets that your friend has bought. So since the railway know that your friend was travelling from A to C but their ticket was only from A to B (or possibly from B to C), and that your friend has done it before, if they find that your friend had 8 previous A to B tickets they may conclude that your friend has done this 8 times before.

The railway may decide to prosecute your friend: if the railway thinks that this has happened 8 or 9 times, this is quite a likely result. Or they may offer an out of court settlement where your friend has to repay the train fares that they should have paid, plus the railway's costs of investigating the matter. Our general advice is that if an out of court settlement is offered, it's better to accept it, as it will probably be cheaper than going to court.

If the matter does go to court, your friend should expect a fine of around half a weeks to a weeks income. They will also have to pay court costs, prosecution costs and the train fare not paid. Your friend will not go to prison. But if your friend is prosecuted under the Regulation of Railways Act for intentionally not paying their fare, then the conviction will be recorded and be liable to show up on DBS searches and so on.

Thank you for your response. What is the likelihood of an out of court settlement being offered?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@T001. Has your 'friend' done this (i.e. short-fared) before? If they've usually purchased their tickets online, using the likes of Trainline, the Train Operating Company, or their investigating team, may well be able to trawl through their ticket purchasing history to see if this was only a one-off, or something that's your 'friend' has gotten away before with on multiple occasions.

Possible resolution outcomes may well vary depending on the answer to this question.

 

[T001]

@T001. Has your 'friend' done this (i.e. short-fared) before? If they've usually purchased their tickets online, using the likes of Trainline, the Train Operating Company, or their investigating team, may well be able to trawl through their ticket purchasing history to see if this was only a one-off, or something that's your 'friend' has gotten away before with on multiple occasions.

Possible resolution outcomes may well vary depending on the answer to this question.

Noted. Apparently they have done this before, up to 8 times in fact. When quizzed on this by the inspector, they confirmed that they had done it before. Based on this, what do you think to be the most realistic outcome?

 

[WesternLancer]

Noted. Apparently they have done this before, up to 8 times in fact. When quizzed on this by the inspector, they confirmed that they had done it before. Based on this, what do you think to be the most realistic outcome?

Hard to know but settlements for repeat offenders certainly happen including cases on this forum. What train company is taking action? - some are more amenable to settling than others. If you can name them people might have an informed view.

 

[T001]

Hard to know but settlements for repeat offenders certainly happen including cases on this forum. What train company is taking action? - some are more amenable to settling than others. If you can name them people might have an informed view.

Interesting to know. The company is Great Western Rail.

 

[WesternLancer]

Interesting to know. The company is Great Western Rail.

You can read their prosecutions/enforcement policy on their website - I have seen others link to it before - so worth you digging that out. I think they are possibly more likely to settle than some others, although repeat offending will of course not have helped achieve that outcome.

My advice would now be to also take every step to show that lesson learned - eg buy a season ticket / railcard for future use etc

 

[T001]

You can read their prosecutions/enforcement policy on their website - I have seen others link to it before - so worth you digging that out. I think they are possibly more likely to settle than some others, although repeat offending will of course not have helped achieve that outcome.

My advice would now be to also take every step to show that lesson learned - eg buy a season ticket / railcard for future use etc

Thank you for your comments and advice.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 May 2022 ==

You can read their prosecutions/enforcement policy on their website - I have seen others link to it before - so worth you digging that out. I think they are possibly more likely to settle than some others, although repeat offending will of course not have helped achieve that outcome.

My advice would now be to also take every step to show that lesson learned - eg buy a season ticket / railcard for future use etc

Do you think there is likelihood of GWR filing for fraud?

 

[WesternLancer]

Do you think there is likelihood of GWR filing for fraud?

Sorry, I have no idea on that really.

 

[30907]

Sorry, I have no idea on that really.

Nor I, but I would say it was unlikely: in many years of reading this forum I cannot recall a case where the Fraud Act has been used in these circumstances.

(There was a notorious case where a London commuter was offered a very substantial out-of-court settlement for "doughnutting" (paying for short sections at each end but not for the middle), but that was on a massive scale.)

 

[RPI]

Nor I, but I would say it was unlikely: in many years of reading this forum I cannot recall a case where the Fraud Act has been used in these circumstances.

(There was a notorious case where a London commuter was offered a very substantial out-of-court settlement for "doughnutting" (paying for short sections at each end but not for the middle), but that was on a massive scale.)

Whilst it hasn't happened yet, TOC's are intending to do so, being able to trace booking history since mobile tickets became this common is also quite a new thing and no doubt it'll be tested