Single Justice Procedure Notice from GOVIA

[Andrew174_]

Hello All,

Just to summarize, I am a uni student that travelled without a railcard on the 19th of March, on 15th July i received a SJPN. After checking these threads extensively it seems there's often a notice to prosecute' letter which I may have missed, as the parcel/post management team in my university accommodation are not always on time. the date of posting was 10th July, and the letter said I have 21 days which is 31st July.
This morning I had sent an email to gtr.prosecutions@gtrailway.com, and received an automatic reply from the email stating

"It strictly DOES NOT deal with any sort of appeal, mitigation or complaints.
If you have been offered an out of court settlement, payment can made at: payments.gtrailway.com, we DO NOT negotiate settlement amounts via email, all settlement amounts are as offered and any query regarding the amount needs to be made in writing to the Fare Evasions Manager to the address below."

Please tell me how to contact them in order to be offered an out of court settlement as I would very much like to maintain a clean record.
Please help urgently as I am very stressed by this due to my already sensitive financial situation :/

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Jul 2024 ==

Here is the email I sent to gtr.prosecutions@gtrailway.com btw,

"
Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you regarding the Single Justice Procedure Notice (SJPN) I received on 15th July 2024, concerning an incident that occurred on 19th March 2024, where I travelled without a valid railcard.

Firstly, I would like to sincerely apologise for this oversight. I fully acknowledge that I committed an offence by boarding the train without a railcard.

I genuinely understand the importance of adhering to the rules and regulations set by Govia Thameslink Rail, and I deeply regret my mistake.

I have since obtained a digital railcard (19th March 2024) in light of this incident.

I kindly request the possibility of reaching an out of court settlement in return for withdrawing the SJPN. I am more than willing to pay the outstanding fare and administration costs or fines that may be imposed and I am eager to resolve this matter amicably and promptly.

Once again, I sincerely apologise for my actions and the inconvenience caused,
and I would greatly appreciate your understanding and consideration.

Yours Faithfully,"

 

[Gloster]

You might obscure your postcode on the third sheet.

 

[notmyrealname]

...and the road name and your postcode in the last image.

 

[island]

The offence they are alleging is a confusing hodgepodge of byelaws 18 (1) and (2); a good solicitor could get it struck out as duplicitous.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hello All,

Just to summarize, I am a uni student that travelled without a railcard on the 19th of March, on 15th July i received a SJPN. After checking these threads extensively it seems there's often a notice to prosecute' letter which I may have missed, as the parcel/post management team in my university accommodation are not always on time. the date of posting was 10th July, and the letter said I have 21 days which is 31st July.
This morning I had sent an email to gtr.prosecutions@gtrailway.com, and received an automatic reply from the email stating

"It strictly DOES NOT deal with any sort of appeal, mitigation or complaints.
If you have been offered an out of court settlement, payment can made at: payments.gtrailway.com, we DO NOT negotiate settlement amounts via email, all settlement amounts are as offered and any query regarding the amount needs to be made in writing to the Fare Evasions Manager to the address below."

Please tell me how to contact them in order to be offered an out of court settlement as I would very much like to maintain a clean record.
Please help urgently as I am very stressed by this due to my already sensitive financial situation :/

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Jul 2024 ==

Here is the email I sent to gtr.prosecutions@gtrailway.com btw,

"
Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you regarding the Single Justice Procedure Notice (SJPN) I received on 15th July 2024, concerning an incident that occurred on 19th March 2024, where I travelled without a valid railcard.

Firstly, I would like to sincerely apologise for this oversight. I fully acknowledge that I committed an offence by boarding the train without a railcard.

I genuinely understand the importance of adhering to the rules and regulations set by Govia Thameslink Rail, and I deeply regret my mistake.

I have since obtained a digital railcard (19th March 2024) in light of this incident.

I kindly request the possibility of reaching an out of court settlement in return for withdrawing the SJPN. I am more than willing to pay the outstanding fare and administration costs or fines that may be imposed and I am eager to resolve this matter amicably and promptly.

Once again, I sincerely apologise for my actions and the inconvenience caused,
and I would greatly appreciate your understanding and consideration.

Yours Faithfully,"

If you are in doubt whether your e-mail has reached GTR and will be acted on (or to be on the safe side) I suggest you send a printed out copy with your postal address included (and your e-mail / phone number etc and any ref numbers) to their postal address (think this is at an address at Kings Cross - other threads have copies of letters on from GTR with that address showing if you do not have it) - and send that signed for by Royal Mail - via local post office - so you can be sure it gets to them.

You might want to add a line about how you have not been ignoring their post but that it seems to have gone missing because your postal address at hall of residence is not secure

eg see attached scan of a letter in post #1 of this thread with their address clearly showing:

Thameslink Accidental Fare Evasion

Hello On 22nd April I was travelling from Bedford to London Blackfriars with my daughter on a Thameslink train. I had bought a ticket and selected network railcard. I was then asked to show my ticket and railcard by a revenues inspector but I soon realised I had forgotten my railcard. The...

www.railforums.co.uk

Prosecutions Dpt, Eastside Offices etc

 

[furlong]

The offence they are alleging is a confusing hodgepodge of byelaws 18 (1) and (2); a good solicitor could get it struck out as duplicitous.

Hmm. We've seen this wording used before, mixing together the statement of the offence with the evidence being used to prove that it occurred. The basic problem is that the defendant has to look up 18(1) themselves independently (or take advice) in order to decide whether or not to plead guilty. If they rely solely on the papers in front of them, I'd suggest their plea may be unduly influenced by "misinformation" about the offence from the prosecutor, or in other words, another abuse of process. You've got me thinking whether this might amount to another category of convictions the Chief Magistrate ought to be reviewing. I don't yet think this one is clear cut, but it's probably worth some probing.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hmm. We've seen this wording used before, mixing together the statement of the offence with the evidence being used to prove that it occurred. The basic problem is that the defendant has to look up 18(1) themselves independently (or take advice) in order to decide whether or not to plead guilty. If they rely solely on the papers in front of them, I'd suggest their plea may be unduly influenced by "misinformation" about the offence from the prosecutor, or in other words, another abuse of process. You've got me thinking whether this might amount to another category of convictions the Chief Magistrate ought to be reviewing. I don't yet think this one is clear cut, but it's probably worth some probing.

Obviously this is an important aspect but at this stage isn’t the op still urgently trying to get through to obtain an out of court settlement so main focus of help around that will be what they ideally need now.

Given the train operator a chance of out of court settlement would be high so that suggests correspondence has got lost I suspect.

 

[Hadders]

I really think you should've mentioned that your post is unreliable and that the SJPN was the first contact you'd had (assuming that it was the first time you'd received any correspondance). Otherwise it just reads like a bit of a sob story.

 

[furlong]

Obviously this is an important aspect but at this stage isn’t the op still urgently trying to get through to obtain an out of court settlement so main focus of help around that will be what they ideally need now.

Indeed, but it does leave open the prospect, many steps ahead, of such a settlement later being overturned if it was eventually decided that settlements of this type were being entered into under false pretences.