Chiltern notice

[twochainz]

Hi and thanks for any help in advance.

To condense everything,

I travelled and got stopped on two occasions. Once I didn't have my railcard on me (I lost my wallet the night prior and ended up buying a digital railcard after being stopped for good measure) and the 2nd time I bought the wrong ticket and repurchased at the gate before an investigation officer stopped me. Both times I was wrong, but I didn't know I could buy at the gate. After the incident the very rude officer told me it was called buying while challenged. I simply didn't know. The reason why I'm here now is because they did an access data request and I admitted to buying short tickets during a hard time in my stay here in the UK. My reasons were overlooked, but in my initial response I was honest about the dates and apologetic. I got a response back and was told there were 50+ times it happened compared to the 20 I remembered and accounted for. I'm not sure what to do because the response says that they see no reason to not take me to court. I guess I'm just looking for some guide or if anyone else experienced this?

This was a TIL for Chiltern and the dates they are saying I avoided fare was from 2019 with a total of £1xxx.00 in fares lost.

 

[Watershed]

Hi and thanks for any help in advance.

To condense everything,

I travelled and got stopped on two occasions. Once I didn't have my railcard on me (I lost my wallet the night prior and ended up buying a digital railcard after being stopped for good measure) and the 2nd time I bought the wrong ticket and repurchased at the gate before an investigation officer stopped me. Both times I was wrong, but I didn't know I could buy at the gate. After the incident the very rude officer told me it was called buying while challenged. I simply didn't know. The reason why I'm here now is because they did an access data request and I admitted to buying short tickets during a hard time in my stay here in the UK. My reasons were overlooked, but in my initial response I was honest about the dates and apologetic. I got a response back and was told there were 50+ times it happened compared to the 20 I remembered and accounted for. I'm not sure what to do because the response says that they see no reason to not take me to court. I guess I'm just looking for some guide or if anyone else experienced this?

This was a TIL for Chiltern and the dates they are saying I avoided fare was from 2019 with a total of £11xx.00 in fares lost.

I'm sure you can appreciate that, having short fared on 20 previous occasions, any argument that you "didn't know" that you have to have a valid ticket before boarding will carry little or no weight.

The 'good' news is that with many incidents in question, it's actually slightly more likely that you will be offered an out of Court settlement.

It avoids the need for them to prove each and every instance, and also may net them more compensation than they'd get in Court - where they would only be awarded their losses, i.e. the difference to the appropriate Off-Peak or Anytime ticket, with Railcard discount if relevant.

By contrast, in a settlement they are free to ask for an undiscounted Anytime single for every single journey.

But there is still no guarantee of, or right to, a settlement and so you will need to draft a suitably worded letter if they are insisting they want to take it to Court, to maximise the chances of being offered a settlement. I'm sure others will be along shortly to suggest a suitable wording.

 

[WesternLancer]

As you will see from other cases involving Chiltern / TIL they take a hard line and you may have to write to them 2 or 3 times to request a settlement instead of court before you get anywhere. Have a search on this part of the forum for 'chiltern' and check some of the threads - the advice on them will be generally be applicable.

If you know you did this only 20 rather than the 50 times they suggest you would need to able to prove that robustly - which is probably not easy to do - and they may then decide they are not bothered with debating that anyway and just take you to court for the case(s) they can clearly prove or you have already admitted to - which they would then win - so you would need to weigh up the benefit of attempting that line or argument.

I suspect you need to go down the profuse apology / learned my lesson / will never do this again route and be prepared to pay up if you mange to get offered a settlement.

 

[twochainz]

Thanks for the responses so far. I'd like to add that I double back to check my app and the dates I had a railcard (Ive bought them 3 times digitally and can account for those times) either 1 of 2 things happened in their response.

1. The exact # of times they are claiming don't include the fact I had a railcard during those times since 2019 (I went a month between expired dates x2)

2. There was a typo in the response

I did ask that my situation, admittance, and offer to pay be taken in account instead of court, but I will draft something again and see where I get. Idk, their numbers aren't adding up. They said those times would be separate from my case of the actual times I got stopped.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks for the responses so far. I'd like to add that I double back to check my app and the dates I had a railcard (Ive bought them 3 times digitally and can account for those times) either 1 of 2 things happened in their response.

1. The exact # of times they are claiming don't include the fact I had a railcard during those times since 2019 (I went a month between expired dates x2)

2. There was a typo in the response

I did ask that my situation, admittance, and offer to pay be taken in account instead of court, but I will draft something again and see where I get. Idk, their numbers aren't adding up. They said those times would be separate from my case of the actual times I got stopped.

Forget about typos.

Ref the Railcard - if you combined a ticket that was not valid for some other reason (short fare, or pay when challenged - ie got on train without having a ticket when you boarded - even if you did not know this was not permitted) you are not entitled to prices discounted / off peak fares etc with Railcard reductions etc I think - they will make the calculation based on the full Anytime (peak) rate ticket charge for the journey concerned. It may be that this explains the discrepancy?

But as Watershed points out you are not entitled to any sort of settlement - I think they could just as easily say "we think you have you have evaded £1,100 worth of fares - we are prepared to consider settling if you pay us £5,000, otherwise we will take this to court" - they are to some extent relying on you not wanting a criminal record. But it sounds like so far they are not even offering you a settlement.

 

[Wolfie]

Thanks for the responses so far. I'd like to add that I double back to check my app and the dates I had a railcard (Ive bought them 3 times digitally and can account for those times) either 1 of 2 things happened in their response.

1. The exact # of times they are claiming don't include the fact I had a railcard during those times since 2019 (I went a month between expired dates x2)

2. There was a typo in the response

I did ask that my situation, admittance, and offer to pay be taken in account instead of court, but I will draft something again and see where I get. Idk, their numbers aren't adding up. They said those times would be separate from my case of the actual times I got stopped.

To be blunt you are in a very weak position to attempt to bargain. You pretty much have to take whatever settlement they offer, if indeed you are offered that option - it isn't a given, or take your chances in Court. If they can prove multiple offences the latter is highly undesirable.

 

[twochainz]

Forget about typos.

Ref the Railcard - if you combined a ticket that was not valid for some other reason (short fare, or pay when challenged - ie got on train without having a ticket when you boarded - even if you did not know this was not permitted) you are not entitled to prices discounted / off peak fares etc with Railcard reductions etc I think - they will make the calculation based on the full Anytime (peak) rate ticket charge for the journey concerned. It may be that this explains the discrepancy?

But as Watershed points out you are not entitled to any sort of settlement - I think they could just as easily say "we think you have you have evaded £1,100 worth of fares - we are prepared to consider settling if you pay us £5,000, otherwise we will take this to court" - they are to some extent relying on you not wanting a criminal record. But it sounds like so far they are not even offering you a settlement.

Ah I see what you're saying. So should I assume they have CCTV of these 50+ times? I assumed they knew everything, which is why I admitted and spoke for the times I could remember.

As you will see from other cases involving Chiltern / TIL they take a hard line and you may have to write to them 2 or 3 times to request a settlement instead of court before you get anywhere. Have a search on this part of the forum for 'chiltern' and check some of the threads - the advice on them will be generally be applicable.

If you know you did this only 20 rather than the 50 times they suggest you would need to able to prove that robustly - which is probably not easy to do - and they may then decide they are not bothered with debating that anyway and just take you to court for the case(s) they can clearly prove or you have already admitted to - which they would then win - so you would need to weigh up the benefit of attempting that line or argument.

I suspect you need to go down the profuse apology / learned my lesson / will never do this again route and be prepared to pay up if you mange to get offered a settlement.

Yeah, I will draft another email for this. He ended the email with this:

"I have passed your allegations on to the Head of Fraud who will investigate your allegations at great length Should they be proved as unfounded then additional costs may be requested at court to cover the full investigation.

This investigation does not negate the fact that you have avoided your rail fares on a number of occasions and will run separately to your court case at this time."

This was because in my initial response, I brought up what happened to me and the recording of the officer. I reported the incident to the railway and got a" well you were wrong, we can't comment on his actions".

To be blunt you are in a very weak position to attempt to bargain. You pretty much have to take whatever settlement they offer, if indeed you are offered that option - it isn't a given, or take your chances in Court. If they can prove multiple offences the latter is highly undesirable.

Yeah I'm happy to pay the amount, I don't want to argue that. I just don't want the hassle of going to court and a potential charge.

 

[Wolfie]

Ah I see what you're saying. So should I assume they have CCTV of these 50+ times? I assumed they knew everything, which is why I admitted and spoke for the times I could remember.

If you bought your tickets online they will have full access to your buying history.

 

[skyhigh]

The reason why I'm here now is because they did an access data request and I admitted to buying short tickets during a hard time in my stay here in the UK. My reasons were overlooked, but in my initial response I was honest about the dates and apologetic. I got a response back and was told there were 50+ times it happened compared to the 20 I remembered and accounted for.

So you've admitted to them you've bought short tickets 20 times, and they've countered by saying you did it 50 times?

"I have passed your allegations on to the Head of Fraud who will investigate your allegations at great length Should they be proved as unfounded then additional costs may be requested at court to cover the full investigation.

I'm not sure I understand. What allegations did you make?

 

[Wolfie]

Yeah, I will draft another email for this. He ended the email with this:

"I have passed your allegations on to the Head of Fraud who will investigate your allegations at great length Should they be proved as unfounded then additional costs may be requested at court to cover the full investigation.

This investigation does not negate the fact that you have avoided your rail fares on a number of occasions and will run separately to your court case at this time."

This was because in my initial response, I brought up what happened to me and the recording of the officer. I reported the incident to the railway and got a" well you were wrong, we can't comment on his actions".

Arrgh, that, which includes them going to more expense, all just makes getting a settlement more difficult. That's why people on here normally advise sorting ticket issues first and only complaining about alleged staff misbehaviour once that is sorted. Too late now.

 

[twochainz]

If you bought your tickets online they will have full access to your buying history.

I understand this. This is why I doubled back to check my history after they said it was more than what I accounted for. And this is how I compared the trips and railcards.

So you've admitted to them you've bought short tickets 20 times, and they've countered by saying you did it 50 times?

I'm not sure I understand. What allegations did you make?

Correct. I listed the journey(s) I knew I shorted. And the allegations of how the officer treated me and another member of staff was reported to the railway. The response from TIL today was "there's no report".

 

[WesternLancer]

I'd forget about the complaint about staff for now (you can return to it later) - FWIW every chiltern case on here says the staff who spoke to the person were very rude or aggressive or some such.

They won't bother with CCTV I doubt - they don't need to - if it goes to court even the 20 times you admitted is going to look bad so they can press for the maximum court fine plus repayment of those fares. You are not even in a strong position to argue about the 50 since they can say 'see you in court' - basically this is the 'punishment' you have got into by fare evasion.

So long as you are not keen on being taken to court your total focus needs to be on apologizing and asking for a settlement. I don't think you can afford to:
- debate the number of times you did this
- complain about rude / aggressive staff
- ask for railcard discounts on fares that were partly or otherwise evaded
- admit to fare evasion but ask them to be nice about it and only seek a lower sum

all the cards are in their hands I fear unless you want to argue about it in court (which you say you don't).

I relaise this is isn't good but since TIL are not known for settling easily you need to focus on achieving that I think. I know this will be disappointing and if others suggest different course of action then that may be worth a try.

 

[AlterEgo]

Well this looks like a real mess that the OP has contributed to after the event.

I think, firstly, the OP needs to realise they have admitted to defrauding the railway of a substantial sum of money, habitually, repeatedly, and dishonestly. Therefore, with such dishonesty already admitted to, the railway is unlikely to take at face value any assertion their own estimations of the sum avoided are wrong. If the OP wishes to challenge the sum avoided, it is up to them, at this stage, to substantiate that.

I did ask that my situation, admittance, and offer to pay be taken in account instead of court, but I will draft something again and see where I get. Idk, their numbers aren't adding up. They said those times would be separate from my case of the actual times I got stopped.

Did you respond to them by letter, or did they interview you under caution?

Have you added up the cost of the Anytime Single on the journeys you took? How are you calculating this loss? Which stations are involved?

I understand this. This is why I doubled back to check my history after they said it was more than what I accounted for. And this is how I compared the trips and railcards.

Did they give you dates of the alleged evasion offences? And do you have proof you held a railcard on any of those dates?

I'm confused - are they accusing you on these dates of not travelling with a railcard with a discounted ticket, or that you bought short tickets (that is, you travelled from A to C but only bought a ticket from B to C)?

Correct. I listed the journey(s) I knew I shorted. And the allegations of how the officer treated me and another member of staff was reported to the railway. The response from TIL today was "there's no report".

Well obviously the prosecuting authority isn't going to give two hoots if the RPI was rude, they just caught someone who they reckon diddled the company out of a thousand pounds. Imagine complaining about a security guard's rudeness when they catch you walking out of a shop with a widescreen telly!

 

[twochainz]

I'd forget about the complaint about staff for now (you can return to it later) - FWIW every chiltern case on here says the staff who spoke to the person were very rude or aggressive or some such.

They won't bother with CCTV I doubt - they don't need to - if it goes to court even the 20 times you admitted is going to look bad so they can press for the maximum court fine plus repayment of those fares. You are not even in a strong position to argue about the 50 since they can say 'see you in court' - basically this is the 'punishment' you have got into by fare evasion.

So long as you are not keen on being taken to court your total focus needs to be on apologizing and asking for a settlement. I don't think you can afford to:
- debate the number of times you did this
- complain about rude / aggressive staff
- ask for railcard discounts on fares that were partly or otherwise evaded
- admit to fare evasion but ask them to be nice about it and only seek a lower sum

all the cards are in their hands I fear unless you want to argue about it in court (which you say you don't).

I relaise this is isn't good but since TIL are not known for settling easily you need to focus on achieving that I think. I know this will be disappointing and if others suggest different course of action then that may be worth a try.

Thanks again. Would it be okay to post the draft here?

Well this looks like a real mess that the OP has contributed to after the event.

I think, firstly, the OP needs to realise they have admitted to defrauding the railway of a substantial sum of money, habitually, repeatedly, and dishonestly. Therefore, with such dishonesty already admitted to, the railway is unlikely to take at face value any assertion their own estimations of the sum avoided are wrong. If the OP wishes to challenge the sum avoided, it is up to them, at this stage, to substantiate that.


Did you respond to them by letter, or did they interview you under caution?

Have you added up the cost of the Anytime Single on the journeys you took? How are you calculating this loss? Which stations are involved?


Did they give you dates of the alleged evasion offences? And do you have proof you held a railcard on any of those dates?

I'm confused - are they accusing you on these dates of not travelling with a railcard with a discounted ticket, or that you bought short tickets (that is, you travelled from A to C but only bought a ticket from B to C)?


Well obviously the prosecuting authority isn't going to give two hoots if the RPI was rude, they just caught someone who they reckon diddled the company out of a thousand pounds. Imagine complaining about a security guard's rudeness when they catch you walking out of a shop with a widescreen telly!

I responded to them via email yesterday and got a response today. I haven't calculated the fares myself, I'm just looking at the amount he told me at this point. The stations are between Marylebone and Bicester Village, some stopping at Seer Green, Beaconsfield, or High Wycombe. They didn't give me exact dates but, one letter says April 2019 to January 2022 and the other from February 2022 to March 2022. I do have proof of the digital railcards I have/had. The whole thing is about the two times I got stopped plus the data accessed. I admitted to the short ones (all that I could remember + my reason why they were short), yet they are saying there were 2x as much. It was beyond rudeness, which is why I made the report to the railway months ago. He's known to harass people unfortunately and the train station staff members have said his behaviour has been ongoing for sometime. Ofc this doesn't excuse what I've done, and I made that clear in my initial response. I wanted to bring it up because I wasn't sure if they actually review these body cams. To also be told "there's no report" of the incident shows he gets covered for his behaviour.

 

[skyhigh]

It was beyond rudeness, which is why I made the report to the railway months ago. He's known to harass people unfortunately and the train station staff members have said his behaviour has been ongoing for sometime. Ofc this doesn't excuse what I've done, and I made that clear in my initial response. I wanted to bring it up because I wasn't sure if they actually review these body cams. To also be told "there's no report" of the incident shows he gets covered for his behaviour.

To be honest I would drop this until the matter is settled. Complaining now will likely only make things worse.

I admitted to the short ones (all that I could remember + my reason why they were short), yet they are saying there were 2x as much.

They must have a reason to say that. Have you checked your purchase history to see if the number of tickets you bought matches what you remember?

I do have proof of the digital railcards I have/had.

You said you had a month gap between the railcards. If you were buying discounted tickets in that gap you've made things worse for yourself if they ask to see proof of your railcard (but if they don't ask, you don't need to drop yourself in it)

What was the time period between you being stopped the first and second time? Is the first issue resolved or are both still progressing?

 

[WesternLancer]

By all means post a draft of your letter / e-mail etc here for comment - people often do and get suggested amends from the forum.

Ref the staff conduct - I don't know but I doubt TIL spend much / any time checking with Chiltern if complaints about chiltern staff conduct have been received / acted upon etc. My understanding is that TIL are employed by Chiltern to either bring cases successfully to court / achieve successful prosecutions at court or maximise the out of court settlement payments they obtain from people who are seeking not to go to court. I don't think it is TIL employed staff who check tickets and report cases of passengers without valid tickets for subsequent action. Though I would stand corrected if others know differently.

 

[AlterEgo]

I responded to them via email yesterday and got a response today. I haven't calculated the fares myself, I'm just looking at the amount he told me at this point. The stations are between Marylebone and Bicester Village, some stopping at Seer Green, Beaconsfield, or High Wycombe. They didn't give me exact dates but, one letter says April 2019 to January 2022 and the other from February 2022 to March 2022. I do have proof of the digital railcards I have/had. The whole thing is about the two times I got stopped plus the data accessed. I admitted to the short ones (all that I could remember + my reason why they were short), yet they are saying there were 2x as much.

OK, so London to Bicester Village is £37 Anytime Day Single. You admitted to 20 offences of short faring, right? I make that £740. The question is where the rest has come from? You say "all I can remember" - have you actually checked?

Did you travel for work to Bicester Village? Did you have a season ticket at any point?

 

[twochainz]

To be honest I would drop this until the matter is settled. Complaining now will likely only make things worse.

They must have a reason to say that. Have you checked your purchase history to see if the number of tickets you bought matches what you remember?

You said you had a month gap between the railcards. If you were buying discounted tickets in that gap you've made things worse for yourself if they ask to see proof of your railcard (but if they don't ask, you don't need to drop yourself in it)

What was the time period between you being stopped the first and second time? Is the first issue resolved or are both still progressing?

Yeah, I looked at my purchase history. I made quite a few journeys between April 2019 and March 2022. Of all the journey(s) I remember shorting those I accounted for because of my situation at the time. So unless I ask them (which I don't want to because I don't want to make this worse), I don't know what 30 additional journey(s) they are counting. Someone mentioned the possibility of counting anything where I bought the ticket after boarding, but if I'm honest I don't remember those times to the exact date. There was about a month between both stops. After the first one, I bought a digital railcard. The second one I bought a ticket at the gate. I was told by TIL to respond to both in the same email.

 

[WesternLancer]

Yeah, I looked at my purchase history. I made quite a few journeys between April 2019 and March 2022. Of all the journey(s) I remember shorting those I accounted for because of my situation at the time. So unless I ask them (which I don't want to because I don't want to make this worse), I don't know what 30 additional journey(s) they are counting. Someone mentioned the possibility of counting anything where I bought the ticket after boarding, but if I'm honest I don't remember those times to the exact date. There was about a month between both stops. After the first one, I bought a digital railcard. The second one I bought a ticket at the gate. I was told by TIL to respond to both in the same email.

Obv unless you keep your own records of fares you evaded in part or in full it's not going to be easy to work out the exact accurate number - so given you can't easily do that here, the chances of you being able to accurately list them out to convince TIL / a court seems unlikely to be possible. The problem is of course that the moment you evade some fares and get caught - and they can then put other instances to you that it is hard for you to dispute - you are on weak ground with that line of argument I fear.

 

[twochainz]

As I've stated in a previous reply, I made it clear in my response that his actions towards myself and the other member of staff didn't make me less guilty. I admit my wrongs, yet that doesn't make it okay for an officer to KNOWINGLY treat people the way he does or (to this day) tell others that I'm a "trouble maker". Because I'm not, I didn't have the means to get to work during that time nor do I have access to help, no family here.

It just shows that a lot gets swept under the rug.

Moving on from this because I've said my piece and I'm focusing on trying to get a settlement.

OK, so London to Bicester Village is £37 Anytime Day Single. You admitted to 20 offences of short faring, right? I make that £740. The question is where the rest has come from? You say "all I can remember" - have you actually checked?

Did you travel for work to Bicester Village? Did you have a season ticket at any point?

No I didn't have a season ticket and not all journeys were from London to Bicester, most were shorter (London to High Wycombe, London to Seer Green, High Wycombe to Beaconsfield, High Wycombe to Bicester Village)

 

[Wethebest838]

My understanding is that TIL are employed by Chiltern to either bring cases successfully to court / achieve successful prosecutions at court or maximise the out of court settlement payments they obtain from people who are seeking not to go to court. I don't think it is TIL employed staff who check tickets and report cases of passengers without valid tickets for subsequent action. Though I would stand corrected if others know differently.

Always wondered this as the TIL website makes it sound like they can be/are RPI’s for companies like Chiltern, TFW etc. My cousin said that they never actually stated who they were when stopped. They also wore civilian clothing with no bodycams. Makes me think the inspectors are TIL. Obviously like SWR have RPI in uniform with ‘Revenue protection’ on their uniform which I see at Waterloo a lot. Even more curious now..

 

[CyrusWuff]

Always wondered this as the TIL website makes it sound like they can be/are RPI’s for companies like Chiltern, TFW etc. My cousin said that they never actually stated who they were when stopped. They also wore civilian clothing with no bodycams. Makes me think the inspectors are TIL. Obviously like SWR have RPI in uniform with ‘Revenue protection’ on their uniform which I see at Waterloo a lot. Even more curious now..

TIL can provide a "full service" with their own staff either supporting or in lieu of TOC revenue staff, or they can act as a "clearing house" and deal with the paperwork.

It's also entirely possible for both TIL and TOC staff to carry out "plain clothes" operations, though they tend to stick out like a sore thumb.

 

[AlterEgo]

No I didn't have a season ticket and not all journeys were from London to Bicester, most were shorter (London to High Wycombe, London to Seer Green, High Wycombe to Beaconsfield, High Wycombe to Bicester Village)

OK, so, are those journeys you purchased short tickets for?

It is extremely unclear what you are being pursued for.

 

[Wolfie]

As I've stated in a previous reply, I made it clear in my response that his actions towards myself and the other member of staff didn't make me less guilty. I admit my wrongs, yet that doesn't make it okay for an officer to KNOWINGLY treat people the way he does or (to this day) tell others that I'm a "trouble maker". Because I'm not, I didn't have the means to get to work during that time nor do I have access to help, no family here.

It just shows that a lot gets swept under the rug.

Moving on from this because I've said my piece and I'm focusing on trying to get a settlement.


No I didn't have a season ticket and not all journeys were from London to Bicester, most were shorter (London to High Wycombe, London to Seer Green, High Wycombe to Beaconsfield, High Wycombe to Bicester Village)

To be harshly blunt the fact that you did not have the means to get to work really is not the railway's problem.

 

[twochainz]

OK, so, are those journeys you purchased short tickets for?

It is extremely unclear what you are being pursued for.

Yes. I purchased short tickets during 20 of those journey(s).

They stopped me twice, unrelated to the 20x. The first time, I didn't have my railcard on me. Second time I bought a ticket at the gate because I had the wrong one. Because of the incident that happened, the officer said they would just "check with train line" and that's why in both letters, I was told they did a data access request and gave me a piece of paper to record those dates. I emailed them back with the ones I remembered and why. They emailed me back saying it was more times, but didn't give dates etc.

 

[WesternLancer]

TIL can provide a "full service" with their own staff either supporting or in lieu of TOC revenue staff, or they can act as a "clearing house" and deal with the paperwork.

It's also entirely possible for both TIL and TOC staff to carry out "plain clothes" operations, though they tend to stick out like a sore thumb.

Thanks for clarifying. I don't know what level of service they provide for chiltern so I may have been wrong in my assumption.

 

[twochainz]

Okay, here's my draft

Hello xxxx,

Thank you for your email. I would like to clarify a few things as I believe part of my response was misunderstood. I'd like to address that first:

I did not mean that the RPI racially profiled me, but that I had been prior to reaching my final destination. My mentioning of this as well as the reasoning of my distressed state was because it wasn't my intent to not pay a full fare, I made an honest mistake.

I now understand my offences have added to the existing issue of fare-dodging which I've taken the time to research. I apologise for my actions and contribution to this matter as regardless of my situation and circumstances--it was never okay to short fare or use discount fares when I didn't have the proper documentation or complete fare. I understand that because of my misuse, this has caused the railway and yourselves more work and I do apologise. In the previous email, you stated the total amount of fares you all want to recover is £1xxx.xx. Due to the nature of my new job, it would be a bad reflection and most likely cause me to lose it if this results in a criminal record. I'm keen to settle this matter outside of court. With all due respect, I was in a bad situation and had no means to pay. I know this isn't your concern or issue, however I do ask there to be a consideration to settle outside of court to return those funds, in full, back to the proper railway financial department. I have since renewed my railcard and paid fares in full.

 

[Wolfie]

Okay, here's my draft

Personally l would completely reorder that. I would suggest that you get your apologies, which need to be much less proforma and matter of fact, in first. I would then follow by talking about what l am now doing differently as a result.

Being absolutely blunt the railway or indeed a Court really won't care why you committed what is actually a criminal act. If you do wish to include that l suggest that you seriously shorten it.

Ideally it would be better if you could not include the first para at all. Unfortunately having put the issue into play l suspect that you have no choice to address it now. I have to say though that having in your previous correspondence apparently used language which suggested that an official of the railway doing their job who caught you bang to rights fare dodging was guilty of racism will likely at worst make your chances of being offered a settlement more difficult and at best potentially result in the settlement level offered being higher.

 

[AlterEgo]

Yeah that is a draft which is not going to help matters.

Mentioning the fact you felt racially profiled while apparently diddling the company of about a thousand pounds isn't a good look. Leave that issue alone, at least until you settle, for God's sake. You are the one who has straight up admitted defrauding the company, repeatedly, deliberately, and dishonestly. The train company is the victim, not you. It is now up to you to try not to get put in front of a court, so switch on and be real.

Here's what you need to do, in this order:

1) Apologise sincerely for both the offences where you were stopped twice, and for the repeated short faring. You need to underline the fact that you are very sorry and realise how damaging this offending is, and that you realise it is a crime.
2) Reiterate your intention to settle out of court.
3) Accept that while there has been a long pattern of offending on your part, you are keen to understand the rationale for their £1100 of evaded fares. Show proof of your former railcards (attach them!) and reiterate again your keenness to reimburse the company for the fares outstanding.
4) Finish with a further apology and that you hope the matter can be settled without recourse to the expense of the court system.

Be under no illusion that if you are invited to settle, they will want to be paid pretty much straight away.

 

[MCSHF007]

With greatest of respect you've been caught (and admitted) fare-dodging on an almost industrial scale. That's out and out theft.

Please engage with whatever the easiest/cheapest solution they offer you. Good luck!