Railcard

[Lillypopp]

I was caught with a child ticket yesterday at the snow hill station yesterday, the officer took my details and address. He also took a picture of my ticket. I told him I know what I did was wrong and I’m ready to pay the fine.
He also told me to fill a form and sign.
I gave him a correct address but wrong name and date of birth.
Please what should I be expecting? Will I be charged to court or just get a fine ?

 

[Snow1964]

A letter will probably arrive 5-20 weeks time addressed to name given.

Potentially someone in your family will return to sender if they don't recognise name. But assuming you intercept it, will have to see what they say. Chances are they will ask for your side of the story.

If the incorrect date of birth puts you below a certain age, might address it to Parents or Guardian of name. How it goes from there depends on your and your parents actions.

It might be that if it gets returned as unknown it will just get dropped as too difficult, especially if the surname is different on electoral role. Unlikely to have resources to try and identify correct recipient. But might circulate a photo and watch out for you.

If however you didn't buy ticket with cash at a station, but bought it through an app, then they have alternate way of tracing you because the little reference numbers on the ticket (which was photographed) provide a trail.

 

[Lillypopp]

I’m worried they’ll track me, the officer also mentioned I’ll only be paying a certain amount of fine and they will send a letter. I’m really scared of what the outcome would be

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@Lillypopp. Welcome to the forum.

A handful of clarificatory questions. How old are you?

(As you are probably already aware, child tickets, which are discounted by 50%, are only for use by persons aged 5-15).

Also, how many times have you previously bought / used such child tickets before being caught?

And did you buy these tickets using Trainline or similar?

 

[Lillypopp]

@Lillypopp. Welcome to the forum.

A handful of clarificatory questions. How old are you?

(As you are probably already aware, child tickets, which are discounted by 50%, are only for use by persons aged 5-15).

Also, how many times have you previously bought / used such child tickets before being caught?

And did you buy these tickets using Trainline or similar?

I’m 30
About 20 times
Yes I bought using Trainline

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

I was caught with a child ticket yesterday at the snow hill station yesterday, the officer took my details and address. He also took a picture of my ticket. I told him I know what I did was wrong and I’m ready to pay the fine.

It's not quite that simple. You've comitted a criminal offence which means the train company could decide to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court. The court would impose a fine as a punishment, you would also have to pay a victim surcharge, court costs and compensation.

Most train companies are prepared to settle matters like this if you co-operate with the process and haven't come to their attention before. An out of court settlement normally involves paying the train company an administration fee plus the cost of the fare avoided. Technically it isn't a fine (only a court can impose a fine as a punishment following conviction) but paying a sum of money in these circumstances does feel like a fine.

BUT....

I gave him a correct address but wrong name and date of birth.

Giving false details to an authorised person is a creminal offence in itself and this doesn't help your case. It's probably still possible to arrange an out of court settlement but you will need to work a bit harder to get one.

Please what should I be expecting? Will I be charged to court or just get a fine ?

The train company will send you a letter which typically takes a few weeks to arrive. Clearly it will be addressed to the 'false name you gave but you must deal with this letter or matters could end up being a whole lot worse. The letter will say that they have received a report, are considering prosecuting you and asking for your version of events before deciding how to proceed. I suggest you reply with a short, concise letter mentioning the following points:

- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the train company's administrative costs in dealing with the matter
- You will also need to explain that you gave false details when you were stopped

Be aware that he train company will be able to search your purchase history and if you have a history of purchasing child rate tickets you are not entitled to you could have some more explaining to do. This would also make obtaining an out of court settlement harder to achieve.

Feel free to post a copy of the letter once it arrives (with personal details redacted) along with your draft reply in this thread and forum members will be happy to proof read it for you.

 

[RPI]

If it was an E-Ticket through the trainline then they will almost certainly track your correct details, from what you say they there is suspicion of previous offences, so once they obtain the spreadsheet of your previous journeys from the trainline it will be linked to the name on the account, if they were bought as a guest then they will be linked to a payment card.

As others have said, providing false details constitutes another offence so it is likely that the administration costs will be more as more work has to go into locating you.

 

[Lillypopp]

If it was an E-Ticket through the trainline then they will almost certainly track your correct details, from what you say they there is suspicion of previous offences, so once they obtain the spreadsheet of your previous journeys from the trainline it will be linked to the name on the account, if they were bought as a guest then they will be linked to a payment card.

As others have said, providing false details constitutes another offence so it is likely that the administration costs will be more as more work has to go into locating you.

That’s the name I use in purchasing the tickets, also I pay through Apple Pay

 

[RPI]

That’s the name I use in purchasing the tickets, also I pay through Apple Pay

You use the false name to purchase tickets?

Can still be tracked through apple pay ultimately.

 

[Grvrdvicdr]

from my time in revenue protection I saw one case only of someone using a false name to purchase tickets and also provided false details when eventually caught. This person ended up getting dealt with by British Transport Police and actually got arrested for Fraud by misrepresentation which is a lot more severe than dealing with the same railway so if I was you I’d fully cooperate to get this sorted as this is more than just fare evasion at from what I’ve read…

 

[AlterEgo]

That’s the name I use in purchasing the tickets, also I pay through Apple Pay

Why would you use a false name to purchase the tickets?

 

[island]

Even if they can't obtain enough data to contact the offending passenger, they can flag the payment card/email address/other particulars used, and at some future time the passenger will find they are met by revenue protection, and quite possibly the BTP, on one of their journeys, with a rather uncomfortable and expensive outcome.

 

[Grvrdvicdr]

Even if they can't obtain enough data to contact the offending passenger, they can flag the payment card/email address/other particulars used, and at some future time the passenger will find they are met by revenue protection, and quite possibly the BTP, on one of their journeys, with a rather uncomfortable and expensive outcome.

Having the correct address and payment details will be a good place for them to start

 

[SCDR_WMR]

As this happened at Snow Hill, I can guarantee this has been passed over to the Digital Fraud team, who are proving quite prolific at dealing with deliberate fare evasion. As far as I'm aware, they almost always put an offer to you and only take to court for ignoring correspondence or if you are unwilling to cooperate with their investigation. It's up to you which route they take.

They will have your full past purchase history (possibly from multiple retailers if you use more than just Train line) now and will base any offer on the full Anytime ticket price for each occasion so do the maths, add on around £100 for admin and that's a ballpark figure.
You can challenge the figure, however, only challenge if its honestly grossly inflated as they could easily take this to court given the number of occasions and the false details given.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Oct 2023 ==

Even if they can't obtain enough data to contact the offending passenger, they can flag the payment card/email address/other particulars used, and at some future time the passenger will find they are met by revenue protection, and quite possibly the BTP, on one of their journeys, with a rather uncomfortable and expensive outcome.

The gate line staff at Snow Hill are fully trained RPIs rather than gateline staff and could probably look to target the OP in future.