Intent to prosecute letter PLEASE HELP

[T46ghlk]

Hey everyone,
I received a letter a few days ago about a invalid ticket I was caught with (see attached). I arrived at London Bridge with only a few seconds before my train arrived and was unable to buy the ticket for the specific train I was on. In a tired state I bought a ticket from the wrong station with a railcard on that I didn’t realise had expired. I was caught and cooperated with the guy and he gave me a reference. The letter I have only displays one offence (see on the back)
What should I say to get an out of court settlement as I am planning to move to Australia in the future and am willing to pay any fine for the trouble caused. All though I think this is too little to late, I can provide evidence that I have paid the correct fares since the incident occurred
Please any help would be appreciated as I am panicking right now and not sure what to do

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

We could do with knowing more about what has happened here as your story doesn't really add up.

You arrived at London Bridge with insufficient time to purchase the correct ticket but you had time to purchase an incorrect one?
What ticket did you purchase - presumably one that got you through the ticket barriers at London Bridge?
Where were you caught - on the train or at the station? London Bridge or at your destination?

 

[scrapy]

If you're concerned about a visa for Australia they are generally only interested where a prison sentance has been served. You will not go to prison for this.**

** I am not qualified to give immigration or legal advice I'm just going off what I've been told by people who are.

 

[T46ghlk]

Welcome to the forum!

We could do with knowing more about what has happened here as your story doesn't really add up.

You arrived at London Bridge with insufficient time to purchase the correct ticket but you had time to purchase an incorrect one?
What ticket did you purchase - presumably one that got you through the ticket barriers at London Bridge?
Where were you caught - on the train or at the station? London Bridge or at your destination?

I wasn’t sure if I was going to make the train on time and there’s no barriers between where I get off at London Bridge to get on the next train so I tried to get it as I got on the train. I know it’s silly but I wasn’t thinking straight and it wasn’t showing up on trainline so I decided to get a train ticket from the next station

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Jun 2023 ==

Welcome to the forum!

We could do with knowing more about what has happened here as your story doesn't really add up.

You arrived at London Bridge with insufficient time to purchase the correct ticket but you had time to purchase an incorrect one?
What ticket did you purchase - presumably one that got you through the ticket barriers at London Bridge?
Where were you caught - on the train or at the station? London Bridge or at your destination?

I was caught on the train

 

[Hadders]

I wasn’t sure if I was going to make the train on time and there’s no barriers between where I get off at London Bridge to get on the next train so I tried to get it as I got on the train. I know it’s silly but I wasn’t thinking straight and it wasn’t showing up on trainline so I decided to get a train ticket from the next station

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Jun 2023 ==


I was caught on the train

So you didn't start your journey at London Bridge.
Where were you travelling from and to?
What tickets did you purchase?

We do need to know these details to be able to give you the best advice.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

If you only had a few seconds before your train, how did you have the time to buy any ticket at all !?

 

[T46ghlk]

So you didn't start your journey at London Bridge.
Where were you travelling from and to?
What tickets did you purchase?

We do need to know these details to be able to give you the best advice.

I use contactless to get from New Eltham to London Bridge then a seperate trainline ticket to Brighton, I used a travel card but mine had only recently just expired but I didn’t realise

 

[AlterEgo]

I use contactless to get from New Eltham to London Bridge then a seperate trainline ticket to Brighton, I used a travel card but mine had only recently just expired but I didn’t realise

By travel card do you mean a railcard? How out of date is it?

I’m not certain which part of your journey wasn’t covered by the tickets either. You travelled from New Eltham to Brighton? And you had a ticket from New Eltham to London Bridge, on contactless - and then some ticket to Brighton - was that one also from London Bridge?

 

[T46ghlk]

By travel

I’m not certain which part of your journey wasn’t covered by the tickets either. You travelled from New Eltham to Brighton? And you had a ticket from New Eltham to London Bridge, on contactless - and then some ticket to Brighton - was that one also from London Bridge?

The first part was fine it was the London Bridge to Brighton but the ticket was from east Croydon to Brighton so I hadn’t paid for the London Bridge to east Croydon part of the journey

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Jun 2023 ==

By travel card do you mean a railcard? How out of date is it?

I’m not certain which part of your journey wasn’t covered by the tickets either. You travelled from New Eltham to Brighton? And you had a ticket from New Eltham to London Bridge, on contactless - and then some ticket to Brighton - was that one also from London Bridge?

As for the railcard I’m not sure exactly how long but couldn’t be more than a month. It’s never normally checked so I just forgot about it

 

[Hadders]

We're still not getting the full picture here. As I said earlier we need to know this to be able to give you the best advice. The drip feeding on information is not at all helpful.

As I understand it:

You tapped in at New Eltham with a contactless card and travelled to London Bridge
At London Bridge you only had a few seconds to catch your connecting train to Brighton
Did you touch out at London Bridge?
You purchased a ticket on the Trainline app but purchased one from East Croydon to Brighton
You purchased a railcard discounted tixcket but it was out of date
You were spoken to by a revenue inspector who took your details

Did you touch out anywhere?
Where did the revenue inspection take place - was this before East Croydon or afterwrds
What was the exact ticket you purchased?
When did you purchase the ticket - after the train departed London Bridge but before East Croydon?
Did you only purchase the ticket to Brighton when you saw the inspector was onboard the train?
You mention a Travelcard in your last post - I assume you mean a railcard or do you have a Travelcard?

Is there anything else?

 

[island]

As for the railcard I’m not sure exactly how long but couldn’t be more than a month. It’s never normally checked so I just forgot about it

If you're not sure how long, please have a look at your old Railcard for its expiry date, and check.

 

[AndroidBango]

Have you done this before?

 

[WesternLancer]

I am planning to move to Australia in the future and am willing to pay any fine for the trouble caused.

Obv people will give you good advice here when it's clear what you actually did (if you didn't intend to evade a fare you have certainly made it look like you did in terms of your posts here!) - but for the future one pertinent bit of advice I think I can give is don't go for the same approach to ticket buying when trying to get over to Australia

 

[T46ghlk]

We're still not getting the full picture here. As I said earlier we need to know this to be able to give you the best advice. The drip feeding on information is not at all helpful.

As I understand it:

You tapped in at New Eltham with a contactless card and travelled to London Bridge
At London Bridge you only had a few seconds to catch your connecting train to Brighton
Did you touch out at London Bridge?
You purchased a ticket on the Trainline app but purchased one from East Croydon to Brighton
You purchased a railcard discounted tixcket but it was out of date
You were spoken to by a revenue inspector who took your details

Did you touch out anywhere?
Where did the revenue inspection take place - was this before East Croydon or afterwrds
What was the exact ticket you purchased?
When did you purchase the ticket - after the train departed London Bridge but before East Croydon?
Did you only purchase the ticket to Brighton when you saw the inspector was onboard the train?
You mention a Travelcard in your last post - I assume you mean a railcard or do you have a Travelcard?

Is there anything else?

Sorry I am new to this and am trying to rack my brains as to how it went as it was early in the morning and a few weeks back
Yeah it was between London Bridge and east Croydon when I purchased the ticket and I hadn’t seen the inspector.
It was a 16-25 railcard and it expired march 28th

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Jun 2023 ==

I

Obv people will give you good advice here when it's clear what you actually did (if you didn't intend to evade a fare you have certainly made it look like you did in terms of your posts here!) - but for the future one pertinent bit of advice I think I can give is don't go for the same approach to ticket buying when trying to get over to Australia

honestly I will never do it again after this I am stressing out

 

[Hadders]

Sorry I am new to this and am trying to rack my brains as to how it went as it was early in the morning and a few weeks back
Yeah it was between London Bridge and east Croydon when I purchased the ticket and I hadn’t seen the inspector.
It was a 16-25 railcard and it expired march 28th

Thanks but there are still several questions I asked which you haven't answered. Have another look at my last post, take your time and see if you can remember what happened so you can help us piece together what happened.

honestly I will never do it again after this I am stressing out

Forum members will help you to try and get a satisfactory outcome if you can tell us exactly what happened.

 

[WesternLancer]

Sorry I am new to this and am trying to rack my brains as to how it went as it was early in the morning and a few weeks back
Yeah it was between London Bridge and east Croydon when I purchased the ticket and I hadn’t seen the inspector.
It was a 16-25 railcard and it expired march 28th

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Jun 2023 ==

I

honestly I will never do it again after this I am stressing out

People are asking for more info to see if actually there are any get out clauses that you could perhaps avail yourself of - tho I think this is unlikely.

If you can't recall exactly what you did then I suggest you default to the general advice usually given on here which is to reply to them with a general apology for what happened, make it clear you have learned from your mistake and won't do it again, recognise the seriousness of the mistake, and state what steps you will take in future to not do this again / learn from the error - and make sure you end by asking if they will kindly consider letting you settle the matter for any sum owed instead of it having to go to court.

If you like you can post your draft of such a letter / reply to them up here for people to comment and I am sure people will offer advice on what you have said.

It sounds like this was Thameslink train, and they have a reasonable record for agreeing to such settlements for people who engage with them and are not persistent fare evaders.