Received Notice of Intended Prosecution

[Nightmare2025]

Hi, today I received the letter below. On the occasion in question I arrived at Banbury when I was asked for my railcard. When I went to show the person, I realised it had expired in June 2024. I made a number of journeys between the expiry date and the 18th October 2024. I believe that, according to their usual system, the amount I will "owe" the train companies is the full cost of every journey I made during that period as single tickets. I think this is in the region of £1,300.

I genuinely had no idea that the railcard had expired as I had no notification from the Trainline app and it continued to auto-fill the 26-30 railcard section when I went to buy new tickets despite being expired. Please can you advise me on the best way to proceed? What should I do next? The letter states I have 14 days before being processed for a summons and the letter was sent on the 28th February so I've already lost several days.

[Edit] Questions that have occurred to me today:
- I've seen similar (verbatim) letters others have posted which have NOT referred to seeking legal advice. Should I therefore engage a solicitor?
- Should I suggest an amount to the train company based on my calculations or should I just say I want to make amends and let them tell me how much they think I should pay?



We are in receipt of a report, which advises that on Friday 18th October 2024, a person giving your name and address details was spoken to by railway revenue protection staff in connection with a journey between Marylebone and Banbury, at the time you failed to show a valid rail ticket for the journey that you were making or had made.

Following you being spoken to; the Economic Crime, Fraud & Prosecutions Unit submitted a data access request Under Schedule 2 Part 1 Paragraph 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR Article 6 (1) (d), to various rail ticket retailers, which has revealed that you may have avoided the correct rail fare on other occasions.

If you have a valid railcard but were unable to produce it to the rail official on the day in question, please email a copy of any railcards you hold or previously held for us to review.

The purpose of this letter is to advise you of the report and of any action that may follow from it, and to provide you with the opportunity to inform us of any mitigation that you may wish to be considered. This should be sent via email to Fraud@chilternrailways.co.uk

The report of this incident indicates that in the absence of a satisfactory explanation, evidence does exist to warrant a prosecution in accordance with the current legislation. These considerations may include whether any charge should allege an offence against Railway Byelaws (2005), or the Regulation of Railways Act 1889.

You are therefore advised to seek out independent legal advice from a Solicitor trained in criminal law and who is registered with the Law Society. It would also be an advantage if they have knowledge of rail fare law, as this is a specialised area.

The company considers this a serious matter, and if we do not hear from you within 14 days of the date of this letter, this matter will be passed to our Prosecuting Authority with a view to obtaining a Summons to a Magistrates' Court hearing, this may be issued without further reference to you.

 

[Spaceship323]

Hopefully an expert will be along soon but if you say you're sorry, have learned your lesson, offer to pay their costs, pay for the tickets bought at a discount rate and promise not to do it again they will probably settle out of court. There are lots of examples on here you can refer to - especially by Hadders who should be around later to give good advice

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Mar 2025 ==

Please could someone advise OP on how to respond? This one seems to have slipped through unnoticed

@Nightmare2025 if you reply to this post it'll bump it to the top of the list and make it more visible

 

[Nightmare2025]

Hi, thanks for the response @Spaceship323.

Just bumping this post as I'd really appreciate any more advice.

 

[tonycockram]

Have a look at a lot of the responses from hadders. It looks a simple case and wmt usually off out of court settlements. Hadders advised what to write and to apologise and you need to be mentioning g the other times you have avoided dares as they have raised that in their letter to you

You can expect to lay a full single fair for each avoided rail journey with no allowance for the expired railcard. Plus an admin fee of around £150 or so

 

[Trainman40083]

And renew that railcard and diary the renewal date for future.... Don't rely on any organisation to tell you it has expired....

 

[Nightmare2025]

Thanks for the replies. @tonycockram So I should list all the journeys I made - even though they've done a freedom of information request and presumably have this information already? Or do you mean I should just say "I know there were numerous journeys made during the period from which it expired and want to make restitution for those too." How specific do I need to be?

@Trainman40083 I renewed it same day and have put a week's worth of notifications in my calendar for next year.

 

[Trainman40083]

Thanks for the replies. @tonycockram So I should list all the journeys I made - even though they've done a freedom of information request and presumably have this information already? Or do you mean I should just say "I know there were numerous journeys made during the period from which it expired and want to make restitution for those too." How specific do I need to be?

@Trainman40083 I renewed it same day and have put a week's worth of notifications in my calendar for next year.

That could be mentioned in any reply you make, as it shows you are addressing the issue to avoid it happening again. This issue with Railcards surprises me (generally)..If each Railcard has an expiry date, if the user had to enter a unique reference, then a system would check validity before accepting it.

 

[John R]

I think the wording you suggest is fine.

 

[tonycockram]

Thanks for the replies. @tonycockram So I should list all the journeys I made - even though they've done a freedom of information request and presumably have this information already? Or do you mean I should just say "I know there were numerous journeys made during the period from which it expired and want to make restitution for those too." How specific do I need to be.

It’s the honesty check they are testing. I’d have a check in your history and say roughly how many. ( but it’s one of them.)

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

We see lots of cases like this on here. Chiltern normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with them, and who haven't come to their attention before. The letter they've sent is the standard letter they normally send.

A short, concise reply that mentions the following should obtain a favourable result:

- 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

Don't offer them a figure, but I would say something like 'I've researched my online ticket purchasing history and believe I have made xx journeys since the railcard expired'.

As others have said, expect an out of court settlement to cost the value of all the fares since the railcard expired at the full Anytime rate, with no credit given for the discounted tickets you did purchase. In addition you will need to pay an admin fee, typically £150. My view is there is no need to involve a solicitor at this stage, should your reply to Chiltern not result in a settlememt then that is the point at which I'd be looking to engage a solicitor.

Pop a draft reply in this thread and forum members will be happy to proof read it for you.

 

[Nightmare2025]

Thank you for the advice. How is this draft?


Dear Fraud and Prosecution Team,

Thank you for your letter dated 28th February, customer reference --------.

I would like to begin by apologising for what has happened. On Friday 18th October I travelled from Marylebone to Banbury. At Banbury station I was asked to show my ticket and railcard. At this point I first realised that my railcard had expired several months prior (8th June 2024).

This was a genuine and honest mistake on my part. I have been using railcards for about 10 years and had never had this experience before. Looking through my travel history I believe that I made 11 return journeys and 2 single journeys between the 8th June and the 18th October bought using the railcard discount under the impression it was still valid.

During these four months of travel I was not asked to produce my ticket and railcard for an inspector, otherwise I would have realised my error sooner. I was surprised not to have been notified within the trainline app that my railcard had expired, and that it continued to automatically select a 26-30 railcard when I searched for new tickets after the expiry.

As soon as the mistake came to my attention, I renewed my railcard the same day (my current railcard is attached as proof) and I have put several notifications in my calendar for next year to remind me of its expiry to avoid making this mistake again in the future.

I am a secondary school teacher and I place a very high value on honesty and integrity, and I hope that I have demonstrated that I made no deliberate attempt to act in a dishonest way. I am however truly sorry for what has happened.

I am keen to settle this matter without the need for court action and I am happy to pay the outstanding fare and the train company’s costs in dealing with the matter.

Kind regards,

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Mar 2025 ==

Bump