Greater Anglia fraud investigation email

[Superhans123]

Received this
We are emailing from the Greater Anglia fraud department. We have been investigating industry data and have been led to believe you are potentially not paying full fares on Greater Anglia services. There appear to be a number of incorrectly purchased tickets showing on your account that are a breach of our terms and conditions and considered fraudulent activity.

I panicked and replied just saying
Could I have some more information on this please

They've responded
To aid our investigation, data has highlighted multiple tickets between Station A and Station B either being purchased on board the trains or on arrival at Station B. These tickets have been scanned on the barriers just after purchase in order to exit the station. These tickets are not valid. This flagged your account as possible fraudulent travel.

Some of the times you have scanned your tickets on the barriers at Station B, no train has stopped at Station A.

Data suggests you may be travelling from Station C and may not be paying your full fares

This is accurate but station C hasn't got barriers but I've bought tickets from there before so I assume they've seen this on trainline. I could possibly say I was travelling from a closer station without barriers but I don't know what proof they've got (e.g CCTV)

Any advice on what I can do about this? Based on similar posts on this site, I understand I can just ignore further emails. However, does the fact I've already replied affect this, even if I haven't replied anything incriminating?
I know travelling like this was stupid of me to do in the first place, definitely won't be doing it in the future! It's only been a handful of times though so should I just take the hit and reply honestly?
I've never been stopped before or received a penalty fare btw and I don't regularly travel on GA.
Any advice would be very much appreciated!

 

[Haywain]

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

First, stop short faring. Ensure you always buy a ticket for your full journey before you board a train in future.

What you do next depends on your attitude to risk. You can respond to the email and after a bit of back and forward Greater Anglia will ask for an amount of money to settle the matter, which you can then pay. Alternatively, ignore the email - do not reply. GA will follow it up a couple of times threatening legal action, but ultimately they will have to give up because they have insufficient evidence to take the matter to court. During this period you will have to live with an amount of uncertainty which some people find easier than others. The choice is entirely yours but, for what it's worth, I would recommend the second course of action.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

First, stop short faring. Ensure you always buy a ticket for your full journey before you board a train in future.

What you do next depends on your attitude to risk. You can respond to the email and after a bit of back and forward Greater Anglia will ask for an amount of money to settle the matter, which you can then pay. Alternatively, ignore the email - do not reply. GA will follow it up a couple of times threatening legal action, but ultimately they will have to give up because they have insufficient evidence to take the matter to court. During this period you will have to live with an amount of uncertainty which some people find easier than others. The choice is entirely yours but, for what it's worth, I would recommend the second course of action.

One thing to add to this: you say

This is accurate but station C hasn't got barriers but I've bought tickets from there before so I assume they've seen this on trainline. I could possibly say I was travelling from a closer station without barriers but I don't know what proof they've got (e.g CCTV)

We cannot possibly recommend that you don't tell the truth. As you say, you don't know what proof the railway have of what you did at station C - and if they catch you out lying, then this gives GA a reason not to believe anything else that you have said.

So either keep quiet (you're not obliged to say anything) or tell the truth. Saying anything which isn't true has the risk of coming back to bite you.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I see you have arranged for the deletion of your previous thread, which was probably sensible given the information in it.

The first- and most important- piece of advice is do not lie. No, they won't have CCTV, but they don't need it to prove you are lying. If you say you did, indeed, start at [short faring station] then the next follow-up questions will be: where do you live, where do you work, how did you get to [short faring station], and why [short faring station]?

(ETA: Edited to change my wording, as I thought station C was the short-faring station but is your actual origin).

For us to advise further, we need to know:

• Have you been purchasing tickets after boarding the train (this is an offence but not does not make the tickets invalid- I really wish GA would stop saying this because it is a lie).
• Have you been purchasing these tickets with the correct origin and destination, or have you been 'short-faring' (buying tickets from a station closer to your destination) or 'doughnutting' (buying low value tickets purely to get through the barriers at your origin and destination).
• If you claimed railcard discounts, did you hold the railcard in question at the time.

You have a right to remain silent but, having disregarded our advice to exercise it with the initial email, it may no longer be the best course of action.

(ETA again: looks like the other thread is back. Odd.)

 

[Superhans123]

I see you have arranged for the deletion of your previous thread, which was probably sensible given the information in it.

The first- and most important- piece of advice is do not lie. No, they won't have CCTV, but they don't need it to prove you are lying. If you say you did, indeed, start at station C then the next follow-up questions will be: where do you live, where do you work, how did you get to station C, and why station C?

For us to advise further, we need to know:

• Have you been purchasing tickets after boarding the train (this is an offence but not does not make the tickets invalid- I really wish GA would stop saying this because it is a lie).
• Have you been purchasing these tickets with the correct origin and destination, or have you been 'short-faring' (buying tickets from a station closer to your destination) or 'doughnutting' (buying low value tickets purely to get through the barriers at your origin and destination).
• If you claimed railcard discounts, did you hold the railcard in question at the time.

You have a right to remain silent but, having disregarded our advice to exercise it with the initial email, it may no longer be the best course of action.

Thank you for your response, I have purchased the ticket after boarding the train and been doughnutting (very stupid I know). They've also asked for proof of railcard but I have that proof. So even an initial email just asking for information is an issue?

 

[Haywain]

So even an initial email just asking for information is an issue?

In doing that you have acknowledged your existence and interest in the matter, so it doesn't help.

 

[Tetchytyke]

So even an initial email just asking for information is an issue?

They are investigating a potential offence, any response- even to acknowledge their email- opens up additional avenues of investigation. They now know the email details (and therefore the other details) they hold are correct and that you are prepared to engage; that in itself is useful information for them.

Beyond that, although you have not been cautioned, anything you say may be used in evidence. You do not have to say anything. But if you do not respond when questioned then it may be used against you in court. They've now questioned you.

However we are where we are.

What happens next is down to your risk appetite.

If you remain silent from now on then GA would probably find it difficult to prove an offence has taken place; purchasing a ticket from your account doesn't mean you were the one using it. It is more likely than not that they would bluster for a bit then move on to the next target.

However if they did decide to prosecute you based on the evidence they have then you would probably have to admit the offence, as it would be difficult for you to offer any sort of defence without lying. As you can imagine, lying in court is a whole new level of trouble.

The other option would be to engage with them. This is likely to cost you £150+ the cost of the fares you failed to pay. This would be calculated using the Anytime single fare. GA are generally content to settle out of court, but it will cost you.

 

[Superhans123]

In doing that you have acknowledged your existence and interest in the matter, so it doesn't help.

You'd still recommend your suggested 2nd course of action in previous reply even with my acknowledgement?