GWR prosecution advice

[Gwrhelp]

Recently i travelled from chippenham to bath, my ticket did not process and i got pulled to the side.
I asked to verify my age in which i said i was 15, after the ticket inspector saying if im honest and admit that i am 18 i would be able to buy an adults ticket and leave.
I admitted i was 18, a few moments later i got told to follow the ticket inspector at the station and got taken to the revenue inspector.
From this moment i was placed under caution and went through the similar treatment which has been spoken about on many threads, they checked my trainline history in which shows i have done this near 30x. I have only recently turned 18. In the whole process i was honest and cooperative and polite.

I am wondering about my expected outcome; fine amount? chance of settlement? any advice or an insight to the predicted possibilities is helpful and any help is much appreciated so i can prepare for the outcome.

Thankyou

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

This was over a long period of time, the 30x purchases was spread across a likely 2-3 year period. I did not do this frequently but over a long time it has added up

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@Gwrhelp. Welcome to the forum. Presume you've been purchasing and using inappropriately discounted 'Child' tickets, despite you being over the age of 15? Is that the case? Reckon what will now happen, if you co-operate with the train company, is that GWR will offer you the opportunity to pay them some £££ to not take you to court. This is quite often a three figure admin fee plus the full undiscounted Anytime Day Single fare for each of the inappropriately discounted tickets they reckon you've bought and used. Chippenham to Bath Spa is £8.60 alone and you mention multiple other occasions. Easy enough for them to check as you've been using 'Trainline'. And you'll likely not be given any allowance for what you've already underpaid. Good luck sorting!

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

Legally speaking you've committed a criminal offence and GWR are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they want to. The good news is they are one of the more reasonable train companies to deal with and will usually offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with them, and who haven't come to their attention before.

What happens next is they will write to you, saying they've received a report and asking for your version of events before they decide how to proceed. When the letter arrives post a redacted copy of it in this thread and forum members will proof read it for you. If you are offered a settlement expect to have to pay the cost of all the journeys made with invalid tickets at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the invalid tickets you've purchased. In addition they will charge an admin fee, typically £150. You can check your Trainline account to see how many times you've done this, although the website version tends to hold more transaction history than the app.

You must stop travelling with invalid tickets. If you travel by train frequently then a 16-25 Railcard gives a discount of 33% and will quickly pay for itself.

 

[furlong]

I asked to verify my age in which i said i was 15, after the ticket inspector saying if im honest and admit that i am 18 i would be able to buy an adults ticket and leave.

Then why didn't you just buy the adult ticket and leave?

Was that out-of-court settlement offer recorded on video? Was it mentioned during the interview? (It needed to be formally explained and documented very carefully, as it had the potential to undermine the use of the contents of the interview.)

 

[Gwrhelp]

Then why didn't you just buy the adult ticket and leave?

Was that out-of-court settlement offer recorded on video? Was it mentioned during the interview? (It needed to be formally explained and documented very carefully, as it had the potential to undermine the use of the contents of the interview.)

The man inspecting tickets at the gates said that, however as i was about to go he told me to come back for a second which was when i got dealt with by the revenue protection officer. I was explained everything about the out of court settlements and all standard procedures. I told the revenue protection officer what the man said about how i can leave if i am honest and buy a new ticket in which he said he shouldn’t of done that and i should use that in my response back. Im not too sure how this will help me? Any ideas?