Cross Country ITAL Settlement Offer - help requested!

[ticketunmaster]

Hi all,

I’m looking for advice on a CrossCountry / ITAL settlement offer letter.

I’ve just received a letter in the post (although it's 23-MAR-2026 which was 8 days ago) - from the CrossCountry Revenue Protection Unit via ITAL / IRCAS about "an alleged Railway offence" on 22 September 2025.

The letter says "SETTLEMENT OFFER" and they’ve offered to settle for £352.50 - ("settlement offer of £175.00 plus the fare avoided of £177.50 will be accepted to dispose of your rail fare liability"). The letter says the total payment must be received within 14 days from "the date of this letter". The letter itself does not include any detail of the "alleged Railway offence" or fare etc.

From myself though - the facts of the incident are:

• I had already bought a ticket in advance via Trainline. It was Darlington to Oxford, 13:07 on Mon 22 Sept 2025. Fare was £104.60 (im a mature student and have a valid 18-25 railcard). I have proof of this.
• I mistakenly thought it was an e-ticket and boarded the train without collecting the ticket
• Upon boarding in Darlington I very quickly realised it was actually a collection-only ticket and I had not collected it.
• Realising my error I proactively sought out the guard and explained the situation i.e. i didnt wait for them to do a ticket check - i walked down and found them very soon after depature in Darlington and told them i'd forgot to print the tickets and showed them the booking details etc. They issued me a printed paper Darlington to Oxford ticket marked "X/S Anytime (Single)" and "EXCESS" and advised me that it might be followed up with a letter.
• (Also probably irrelevent but i've been a regular train traveller for 20+ years and never had any issue or fines before)

Realise the law of the land is not in my favour - but is this the sort of case where CrossCountry / ITAL might show any leniency if I write back with proof of purchase and an explanation, or is that totally futile and i should just pay up? I feel very stupid about the whole thing but was also hoping a train company might show leniency for people who pro-actively admit to mistakes who have a clear paper trail and no evidence of

tl:dr - booked advanced collection-only ticket, forgot it was collection-only and boarded train, immediately realised error and pro-actively reported to guard prior to ticket check, 6 months later recieve £352.50 ITAL settlement letter - any chance of requesting leniency somehow or am i toast?

Many thanks,
Ticketunmaster

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Mar 2026 ==

"[...and no evidence of] actively trying to evade a fare." - is what i meant to say

 

[z444z]

It appears they have missed the 6 month deadline to prosecute. They’d missed it even on the date of their letter. Too bad for them.

The problem is that they could have started court proceedings within time and you might not know about it for a week or so.

I think at this stage it would be helpful for us to see the letter they’ve sent you as well as any previous correspondence. Additionally if you have any evidence of the date that this happened that would be worth checking as it’s crucial this is correct.

With some other train companies I’d be confidently suggesting arguing your case or even ignoring this correspondence, waiting a couple weeks to see if anything comes through from the court, and if it does get back to the train company begging to settle, but ITAL play hardball and I’m not convinced this would work, so this definitely needs some thought. Others will weigh in I’m sure.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Just as an aside, was the original ticket a "walk up" type i.e. an Anytime or (Super) Off Peak? If there is no joy, then if so you would at least be able to refund that against a £10 fee as it is in effect unused. However do not do this yet.

 

[AlterEgo]

Hi all,

I’m looking for advice on a CrossCountry / ITAL settlement offer letter.

I’ve just received a letter in the post (although it's 23-MAR-2026 which was 8 days ago) - from the CrossCountry Revenue Protection Unit via ITAL / IRCAS about "an alleged Railway offence" on 22 September 2025.

The letter says "SETTLEMENT OFFER" and they’ve offered to settle for £352.50 - ("settlement offer of £175.00 plus the fare avoided of £177.50 will be accepted to dispose of your rail fare liability"). The letter says the total payment must be received within 14 days from "the date of this letter". The letter itself does not include any detail of the "alleged Railway offence" or fare etc.

From myself though - the facts of the incident are:

• I had already bought a ticket in advance via Trainline. It was Darlington to Oxford, 13:07 on Mon 22 Sept 2025. Fare was £104.60 (im a mature student and have a valid 18-25 railcard). I have proof of this.
• I mistakenly thought it was an e-ticket and boarded the train without collecting the ticket
• Upon boarding in Darlington I very quickly realised it was actually a collection-only ticket and I had not collected it.
• Realising my error I proactively sought out the guard and explained the situation i.e. i didnt wait for them to do a ticket check - i walked down and found them very soon after depature in Darlington and told them i'd forgot to print the tickets and showed them the booking details etc. They issued me a printed paper Darlington to Oxford ticket marked "X/S Anytime (Single)" and "EXCESS" and advised me that it might be followed up with a letter.
• (Also probably irrelevent but i've been a regular train traveller for 20+ years and never had any issue or fines before)

Realise the law of the land is not in my favour - but is this the sort of case where CrossCountry / ITAL might show any leniency if I write back with proof of purchase and an explanation, or is that totally futile and i should just pay up? I feel very stupid about the whole thing but was also hoping a train company might show leniency for people who pro-actively admit to mistakes who have a clear paper trail and no evidence of

tl:dr - booked advanced collection-only ticket, forgot it was collection-only and boarded train, immediately realised error and pro-actively reported to guard prior to ticket check, 6 months later recieve £352.50 ITAL settlement letter - any chance of requesting leniency somehow or am i toast?

Many thanks,
Ticketunmaster

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Mar 2026 ==

"[...and no evidence of] actively trying to evade a fare." - is what i meant to say

Please show us the correspondence with your name removed.

Did you eventually collect the tickets from the machine?

 

[furlong]

Yes, definitely write back with full proof of validity of the original ticket (incl. in-date valid railcard) and mention the relevant parts of the recent ORR review.
(I presume you collected the ticket and can include a copy of it and it did not get refunded.)

From the ORR review:

3.74
Beyond our recommendations, there are three other areas relating to retailing that we think would merit further consideration for action. The first two are areas that we did not have sufficient time to fully consider within the constraints of our review.
...
3.80 We also found during our research and engagement that some passengers buying their tickets online (from a website or app) assume that their ticket would be fulfilled as a digital ticket. But some tickets must be collected from a TVM before travel. This was seen as counter-intuitive when the purchase was made online.

There is no basis to charge a huge administrative fee that must be far in excess of their actual costs. They are out-of-time to prosecute so there's nothing to lose in responding robustly, ultimately considering that a civil court is likely to focus on their actual financial loss (i.e. nil).

NRCOT 9.3 If you are unable to present a valid Ticket when asked or do not pay the whole sum requested by the Train Company when challenged, the Train Company may follow up with you (in writing or otherwise) to seek payment or recovery of unpaid sums and may bring civil proceedings and/or in some cases, a criminal prosecution. The Train Company shall be entitled to recover its costs of this follow up (including claim or prosecution costs) from you whenever such costs are incurred. The sum claimed will not exceed the actual costs of such follow up steps taken.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi all,

I’m looking for advice on a CrossCountry / ITAL settlement offer letter.

I’ve just received a letter in the post (although it's 23-MAR-2026 which was 8 days ago) - from the CrossCountry Revenue Protection Unit via ITAL / IRCAS about "an alleged Railway offence" on 22 September 2025.

The letter says "SETTLEMENT OFFER" and they’ve offered to settle for £352.50 - ("settlement offer of £175.00 plus the fare avoided of £177.50 will be accepted to dispose of your rail fare liability"). The letter says the total payment must be received within 14 days from "the date of this letter". The letter itself does not include any detail of the "alleged Railway offence" or fare etc.

From myself though - the facts of the incident are:

• I had already bought a ticket in advance via Trainline. It was Darlington to Oxford, 13:07 on Mon 22 Sept 2025. Fare was £104.60 (im a mature student and have a valid 18-25 railcard). I have proof of this.
• I mistakenly thought it was an e-ticket and boarded the train without collecting the ticket
• Upon boarding in Darlington I very quickly realised it was actually a collection-only ticket and I had not collected it.
• Realising my error I proactively sought out the guard and explained the situation i.e. i didnt wait for them to do a ticket check - i walked down and found them very soon after depature in Darlington and told them i'd forgot to print the tickets and showed them the booking details etc. They issued me a printed paper Darlington to Oxford ticket marked "X/S Anytime (Single)" and "EXCESS" and advised me that it might be followed up with a letter.
• (Also probably irrelevent but i've been a regular train traveller for 20+ years and never had any issue or fines before)

Realise the law of the land is not in my favour - but is this the sort of case where CrossCountry / ITAL might show any leniency if I write back with proof of purchase and an explanation, or is that totally futile and i should just pay up? I feel very stupid about the whole thing but was also hoping a train company might show leniency for people who pro-actively admit to mistakes who have a clear paper trail and no evidence of

tl:dr - booked advanced collection-only ticket, forgot it was collection-only and boarded train, immediately realised error and pro-actively reported to guard prior to ticket check, 6 months later recieve £352.50 ITAL settlement letter - any chance of requesting leniency somehow or am i toast?

Many thanks,
Ticketunmaster

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Mar 2026 ==

"[...and no evidence of] actively trying to evade a fare." - is what i meant to say

Welcome

Have to say ITAL - who are an outsourced revenue protection contractors for Cross Country (XC) - are not easy to deal with.

Some questions that we probably need to know to help

Did this happen on the outbound journey?
Did you collect your tickets later on and use them on the return Journey?

It's standard practice for them to charge people the full Anytime Single Fare if you were not able to produce a valid ticket on board unfortunately. These fares on Cross County can be eye watering price wise unfortunately - so it's punitive. And they can do this under threat of prosecution for what is a 'strict liability offence' - so they have you over a barrel I fear

Fares are given here

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

The Anytime Single (route not via London) is (or was then) £177.50
The Anytime Return fare was £354.90

so they are charging you the 'correct fare' plus their admin fee by the looks of it - and from experience seen on other threads (search ITAL on the forum) I think they will try to insist on that.

However, a politely worded response to them over the proof of purchase and explanation won't do any harm in my view - but I think it would probably be best to offer them an alternative ticket price option - which if your time of travel would have meant it was the correct ticket could be the Super off Peak single at £104.60 (so £70ish less)

This might not work but I don't think you have anything to lose.

See what others think here over next 24 hours before you reply if time deadline permits.

Also - I suggest posting a draft of any response you want to send them here for comment / proof reading before you send it

 

[z444z]

And they can do this under threat of prosecution for what is a 'strict liability offence' - so they have you over a barrel I fear

Not if they’ve missed the deadline to prosecute.

 

[WesternLancer]

They are out-of-time to prosecute so there's nothing to lose in responding robustly, ultimately considering that a civil court is likely to focus on their actual financial loss (i.e. nil).

Out of time by 1 day if the letter was dated 23 March? (assuming they have not commenced court action yet, and further days have gone by) - so good point

Maybe more hope for the OP than my post above suggests as I did not check the dates

OP - are you 100% certain on date of travel?

 

[Merseysider]

Just as an aside, was the original ticket a "walk up" type i.e. an Anytime or (Super) Off Peak? If there is no joy, then if so you would at least be able to refund that against a £10 fee as it is in effect unused. However do not do this yet.

That would only apply within 28 days of the ticket's expiry. The OP travelled in September.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

If the fare paid was £104.60, was that therefore for a Super Off Peak Single from Darlington to Oxford (route ✠Any Permitted) with NO railcard discount applied?

 

[furlong]

There was also an option to buy a new e-ticket for the journey and refund the original.
Or for the guard to issue the document only to the next station, and for you to either leave the train and collect the ticket there, or to purchase a new e-ticket from that station to your destination.
So it seems unlikely that the company made any attempt to minimise your loss as it should have done even if applying the letter of the rules.

 

[WesternLancer]

Not if they’ve missed the deadline to prosecute.

Thanks - edited my post accordingly

 

[ticketunmaster]

Thanks very much for your replies!

I have done some digging and wanted to provide some clarifications and supporting documents. I attach:

1. Redacted settlement offer letter
2. Redacted screenshot of the Trainline booking details
3. Redacted excess ticket issued by the train guard

A few points of clarification from my original post:

1. The settlement offer letter / correspondence
   The letter dated 23 March 2026, received by post today (31 March 2026) is the first and only correspondence I have received about this matter.
2. Clarification on the ticket and journey
   To clarify the ticket details:
   • The ticket was an Adult Super Off-Peak Single from Darlington to Oxford for travel on 22 September 2025, purchased through Trainline.
   • It included a reservation for the 13:07 service on 22 September, which is the service I travelled on.
   • I also want to correct an earlier point - I did not use a railcard for this ticket.
3. Ticket collection / refund
   I did not collect the ticket at any point, including after the journey had finished. If there is any way of verifying that through Trainline or the retailer, that may possibly help, but I do not know whether such evidence exists. I did not request a refund of the ticket at any point.
4. Train guard / excess ticket
   I have attached the excess ticket issued by the guard. The timestamp on it is 13:19 on 22 September 2025.
   My recollection is that I approached the guard straight away after boarding, although I appreciate the timestamp is around 12 minutes after departure. I think what happened is that I spoke to him first, and he said he would come back to deal with it after he had finished other ticket checks or duties.
5. Some additional background on the ticket purchase (which may or may not be relevant) I had originally bought an Advance Single via Trainline (with the following itinerary on 21 September 2025 18:02 Darlington -> 18:52 Doncaster, 18:59 Doncaster -> 20:28 Birmingham New Street, 21:03 Birmingham New Street -> 22:13 Oxford) but, before travel, I changed that booking in the Trainline app to the Adult Super Off-Peak Single Darlington to Oxford for 22 September 2025 (note that's why the trainline booking screenshot says "changed").

• Redacted settlement offer letter
• 
  
• Redacted screenshot of the Trainline booking details
• 
  
• Redacted excess ticket issued by the train guard

 

[z444z]

They’ve blatantly missed the deadline and imo their letter makes it quite clear that they’re either unaware of this or hoping you won’t notice - I very much doubt they will have started proceedings in time but it can’t be ruled out.

I think responding to them wouldn’t hurt - their damages to recover civilly, if they chose to take this route, would appear to be zero, and they already have all the evidence they’d need for such a claim anyway. Their response might reveal or at least allow you to gauge the possibility that they have started proceedings. But I’d suggest a response that makes clear that you had paid for a valid ticket which you unfortunately forgot to collect and have not refunded and so there has been no loss to the railway whatsoever. See if others agree with this approach, or have other suggestions, and then you can start drafting something for us to review before you send it

 

[AlterEgo]

Tell them to go and do one.

Submit proof of the ticket purchased, and state firmly that no loss has occurred, "hence there is no "rail fare liability" as they claim, and that you trust that closes the matter. Do not apologise for anything. A sentence or two will be sufficient.

There is no risk of prosecution, as others have said they are out of time (yay).

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks very much for your replies!

I have done some digging and wanted to provide some clarifications and supporting documents. I attach:

1. Redacted settlement offer letter
2. Redacted screenshot of the Trainline booking details
3. Redacted excess ticket issued by the train guard

A few points of clarification from my original post:

1. The settlement offer letter / correspondence
   The letter dated 23 March 2026, received by post today (31 March 2026) is the first and only correspondence I have received about this matter.
2. Clarification on the ticket and journey
   To clarify the ticket details:
   • The ticket was an Adult Super Off-Peak Single from Darlington to Oxford for travel on 22 September 2025, purchased through Trainline.
   • It included a reservation for the 13:07 service on 22 September, which is the service I travelled on.
   • I also want to correct an earlier point - I did not use a railcard for this ticket.
3. Ticket collection / refund
   I did not collect the ticket at any point, including after the journey had finished. If there is any way of verifying that through Trainline or the retailer, that may possibly help, but I do not know whether such evidence exists. I did not request a refund of the ticket at any point.
4. Train guard / excess ticket
   I have attached the excess ticket issued by the guard. The timestamp on it is 13:19 on 22 September 2025.
   My recollection is that I approached the guard straight away after boarding, although I appreciate the timestamp is around 12 minutes after departure. I think what happened is that I spoke to him first, and he said he would come back to deal with it after he had finished other ticket checks or duties.
5. Some additional background on the ticket purchase (which may or may not be relevant) I had originally bought an Advance Single via Trainline (with the following itinerary on 21 September 2025 18:02 Darlington -> 18:52 Doncaster, 18:59 Doncaster -> 20:28 Birmingham New Street, 21:03 Birmingham New Street -> 22:13 Oxford) but, before travel, I changed that booking in the Trainline app to the Adult Super Off-Peak Single Darlington to Oxford for 22 September 2025 (note that's why the trainline booking screenshot says "changed").

• Redacted settlement offer letter
• View attachment 201373
  
• Redacted screenshot of the Trainline booking details
• View attachment 201372
  
• Redacted excess ticket issued by the train guard

View attachment 201371

if you are up for a polite but firm exchange with them I suspect people here will help you push back on this.

They may be able to instigate (or threaten to) some civil court debt action against you if this is out of time for criminal prosecution - so that might be the risk to you - tho that might take them some time and trouble so they may not be up for the bother of that (we've seen train companies threaten this when they have more of a leg to stand on than in your case IIRC) but never had a passenger stick with it to get to an actual court case so we can't I don't think - share a thread where that has happened. Passengers concerned have usually ended up paying the train company concerned (GWR comes to mind) albeit a significantly reduced sum, thanks to advice from this forum, than originally asked for under threat of the civil action. Some of those cases have had a distinct whiff of potentially deliberate evasion too - rather than an error such as you made where there seem to me to have been no loss to the actual train company at all, financially speaking.

So I suspect it's up to your appetite for pushing back on this really

I predict some debate here but people will do that in order to give you a clear idea of what you might have to do to push back, and what risks to you could potentially be involved in your doing so.

At this stage I suspect withint the 14 days deadline your best bet is to write back to them pushing back on this

With help from here on what to say / draft

 

[Haywain]

Ticket collection / refund
I did not collect the ticket at any point, including after the journey had finished. If there is any way of verifying that through Trainline or the retailer, that may possibly help, but I do not know whether such evidence exists. I did not request a refund of the ticket at any point.

You should check whether you been been given a refund, whether you requested one or not. Trainline have a history of giving full refunds on tickets that have not been collected (something that is believed to be at least part of the reason for the forthcoming change to refund rules).

 

[Puffing Devil]

I would certainly call their bluff and put an end to it. Either they have or have not started a prosecution in time.

Dear Sir or Madam,​

​

I refer to your letter dated 23 September 2025, referencing an alleged railway offence said to have occurred on Monday, 22 September 2025.​

​

Your letter states that if payment is not received by the stated deadline, “the case will be passed for consideration of further legal proceedings”. I have understood this to mean that, at the time of your letter, no prosecution had yet been commenced.​

​

As this is a summary‑only matter, any prosecution would be subject to the six‑month time limit in section 127 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980. On the dates given in your letter, that period expired around 22 March 2026.​

​

In light of the above, please confirm in writing:​

​

1. Whether any information or charge in relation to this matter has been laid with the magistrates’ court; and
2. If so, the date on which it was laid.

For the avoidance of doubt, I do not accept liability by way of this correspondence and do not make any admissions as to the allegations. I reserve all my rights.​

​

Yours faithfully,​

​

This letter forces the IRCAS to show its hand regarding the strict six-month statutory limit for summary offences. Since the letter is dated 23 March 2026, which is one day after the deadline for an incident occurring on 22 September 2025, their own phrasing suggests they had not actually initiated a prosecution by the time they sent the offer. By formally questioning the date the information was laid without admitting any liability, the OP is essentially testing whether the company is bluffing with a time-barred threat. If the company missed that 22 March cutoff, they lose their legal leverage to prosecute. This paper trail makes it much harder for them to backdate or ignore their procedural failure quietly.

 

[AlterEgo]

You should check whether you been been given a refund, whether you requested one or not. Trainline have a history of giving full refunds on tickets that have not been collected (something that is believed to be at least part of the reason for the forthcoming change to refund rules).

It *shouldn't* have been refunded because it was an amendment from an advance, but still worth checking.

 

[Haywain]

it was an amendment from an advance,

Not as I read the posts.

 

[WesternLancer]

Tell them to go and do one.

very diplomatically put....

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Mar 2026 ==

I would certainly call their bluff and put an end to it. Either they have or have not started a prosecution in time.

Dear Sir or Madam,​

​

I refer to your letter dated 23 September 2025, referencing an alleged railway offence said to have occurred on Monday, 22 September 2025.​

​

Your letter states that if payment is not received by the stated deadline, “the case will be passed for consideration of further legal proceedings”. I have understood this to mean that, at the time of your letter, no prosecution had yet been commenced.​

​

As this is a summary‑only matter, any prosecution would be subject to the six‑month time limit in section 127 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980. On the dates given in your letter, that period expired around 22 March 2026.​

​

In light of the above, please confirm in writing:​

​

1. Whether any information or charge in relation to this matter has been laid with the magistrates’ court; and
2. If so, the date on which it was laid.

For the avoidance of doubt, I do not accept liability by way of this correspondence and do not make any admissions as to the allegations. I reserve all my rights.​

​

Yours faithfully,​

​

This letter forces the IRCAS to show its hand regarding the strict six-month statutory limit for summary offences. Since the letter is dated 23 March 2026, which is one day after the deadline for an incident occurring on 22 September 2025, their own phrasing suggests they had not actually initiated a prosecution by the time they sent the offer. By formally questioning the date the information was laid without admitting any liability, the OP is essentially testing whether the company is bluffing with a time-barred threat. If the company missed that 22 March cutoff, they lose their legal leverage to prosecute. This paper trail makes it much harder for them to backdate or ignore their procedural failure quietly.

Looks like an excellent draft (albeit I don't claim expertise in this sort of draft), fully in line with @AlterEgo suggested approach too....

 

[z444z]

For the avoidance of doubt, I do not accept liability by way of this correspondence and do not make any admission as to the allegations. I reserve all my rights.​

Nitpicking but might “any admission” be better as “any comment”?

Your suggested letter looks good to me and will have exactly the effect that’s needed imo.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Just to second the draft prepared by @Puffing Devil which is far more polite than I would have been!

 

[ticketunmaster]

Thanks for the excellent replies all. Very keen to push back on this. Just to confirm I have not received any automated refunds (checked my bank account and the Trainline order history).

With regard to my reply to them - I wanted to check with you guys whether they would have any obligation to actually tell me whether they had submitted the case to a magistrate? I'm also a bit worried about their 14 day deadline and the Easter holiday cutting into that i.e. I'm not sure I will get any reply from them before that deadline and I'm worried about risks of escalating this into something bigger (a fear these companies are likely counting on). If they had e.g. already submitted to the magistrate could I be on the hook for a much larger penalty if I don't go alone with the settlement?

 

[z444z]

With regard to my reply to them - I wanted to check with you guys whether they would have any obligation to actually tell me whether they had submitted the case to a magistrate?

I don’t see why they’d refuse to tell you given that you’d be finding out by receiving court papers shortly anyway.

If they had e.g. already submitted to the magistrate could I be on the hook for a much larger penalty if I don't go alone with the settlement?

Not massively, I believe court would cost you somewhere between £400 and £800 so not hugely different to what they’re asking you for. The main thing is the criminal conviction which might have little impact on your life or might have a big one, depends what you do and what your plans for the future are. But I do think the chances of them having commenced proceedings in time are slim.

 

[AlterEgo]

Not as I read the posts.

For the avoidance of doubt, from the OP's post 13:

Some additional background on the ticket purchase (which may or may not be relevant) I had originally bought an Advance Single via Trainline (with the following itinerary on 21 September 2025 18:02 Darlington -> 18:52 Doncaster, 18:59 Doncaster -> 20:28 Birmingham New Street, 21:03 Birmingham New Street -> 22:13 Oxford) but, before travel, I changed that booking in the Trainline app to the Adult Super Off-Peak Single Darlington to Oxford for 22 September 2025 (note that's why the trainline booking screenshot says "changed").

 

[ticketunmaster]

Thanks - having any kind of criminal record would be extremely negative for me due to my profession which requires enhanced DBS checks and has strict criminal declaration requirements. Paying their settlement amount to avoid a potential criminal record, if that's a realistic prospect, would be massively favourable in that context.

I think what I should do is:

1. Contact them, pointing out the evidence of the ticket purchase.
2. Ask them if they have started any proceedings with the magistrate.

If they dont respond by their deadline date I may have to bite the bullet and just pay this to get it dealt with though.

 

[z444z]

Thanks - having any kind of criminal record would be extremely negative for me due to my profession which requires enhanced DBS checks and has strict criminal declaration requirements. Paying their settlement amount to avoid a potential criminal record, if that's a realistic prospect, would be massively favourable in that context.

I think what I should do is:

1. Contact them, pointing out the evidence of the ticket purchase.
2. Ask them if they have started any proceedings with the magistrate.

If they dont respond by their deadline date I may have to bite the bullet and just pay this to get it dealt with though.

Sounds reasonable. From our perspective we hate to see people give into the bullying tactics used by train companies but it’s not our risk to bear at the end of the day.

However I do think if they don’t reply within 14 days, if in that 14 days you haven’t heard from the court then you can probably safely assume no proceedings have been brought.

Others might know if it would be possible to contact the court / courts system at this stage to find out if proceedings exist, though I imagine if that were possible someone might have already suggested it.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Sounds reasonable. From our perspective we hate to see people give into the bullying tactics used by train companies but it’s not our risk to bear at the end of the day.

It is, of course the OP's decision as to how much risk to take, but it's worth bearing in mind the following points:
- although it's easier for everyone if the OP concedes before court action starts, it's not essential to resolve at that point. We find that many train companies are prepared to discontinue legal action if an acceptable offer is made after a summons (or Single Justice Procedure Notice - essentially that's a summons too but everything is done by post rather than by appearing in court) is issued: it's also possible (but not guaranteed to work!) to turn up at court on the day of the hearing and negotiate a settlement with the prosecutor face to face before the case is heard.
- although the OP knows that their profession 'requires enhanced DBS checks and has strict criminal declaration requirements', it may be worth exploring whether that amounts to having to have a clean criminal record - or whether the relevant point is that nothing that could be embarrassing is hidden. If the OP is in a union, or maybe if there is an independent staff association which won't snitch to an employer, it would be worth asking for advice of what really happens at their workplace. If the OP's profession has a regulator (GMC, NMC, ICA, etc.) it's probably also worth having a detailed look at the relevant part of the website: what are the rules - and is there a catchall that could bring a criminal record back into play as a problem even if there's nothing that specifically includes it?
- and it seems clear to us that unless IRCAS have already started court action, then they are out of time to do so. OP would be within their rights (although it could be an uphill battle unless court administrators are on the ball about timings) to let the railway take them to court - and then turn up at a hearing and require the railway to prove that they had done everything to time. Which they haven't.

 

[z444z]

- although it's easier for everyone if the OP concedes before court action starts, it's not essential to resolve at that point. We find that many train companies are prepared to discontinue legal action if an acceptable offer is made after a summons (or Single Justice Procedure Notice - essentially that's a summons too but everything is done by post rather than by appearing in court) is issued: it's also possible (but not guaranteed to work!) to turn up at court on the day of the hearing and negotiate a settlement with the prosecutor face to face before the case is heard.

We know this can (and has on the forum I’m pretty sure) work with companies like GTR and I believe Northern, but we generally see IRCAS take a much harder line and overall seem very happy to prosecute people, whereas other companies try to avoid it or at least give people a good chance at avoiding it.

- although the OP knows that their profession 'requires enhanced DBS checks and has strict criminal declaration requirements', it may be worth exploring whether that amounts to having to have a clean criminal record - or whether the relevant point is that nothing that could be embarrassing is hidden. If the OP is in a union, or maybe if there is an independent staff association which won't snitch to an employer, it would be worth asking for advice of what really happens at their workplace. If the OP's profession has a regulator (GMC, NMC, ICA, etc.) it's probably also worth having a detailed look at the relevant part of the website: what are the rules - and is there a catchall that could bring a criminal record back into play as a problem even if there's nothing that specifically includes it?

Good points.