SWR - Issued Warning Rather Than Intent To Prosecute

[anonymousfig]

Hi,

I've been browsing this forum for a few weeks since I was stopped on the 5th this month for travelling with a child ticket.

I've never evaded fares before nor deliberately bought a different ticket to avoid higher fares in the past. But I was stopped by a ticket inspection officer at Waterloo and was given a Travel Irregularity Report and assumed I would be sent a letter with the intention to prosecute and I'd have to ask for an out-of-court settlement judging by other posts on this forum.

To my surprise, I received the letter today and was simply given a warning. All that anxiety for nothing.

Was wondering if this is common for first-time offences? I don't usually see people mentioning these.

 

[AlterEgo]

How old are you?

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Hi,

I've been browsing this forum for a few weeks since I was stopped on the 5th this month for travelling with a child ticket.

I've never evaded fares before nor deliberately bought a different ticket to avoid higher fares in the past. But I was stopped by a ticket inspection officer at Waterloo and was given a Travel Irregularity Report and assumed I would be sent a letter with the intention to prosecute and I'd have to ask for an out-of-court settlement judging by other posts on this forum.

To my surprise, I received the letter today and was simply given a warning. All that anxiety for nothing.

Was wondering if this is common for first-time offences? I don't usually see people mentioning these.

That's certainly a generous resolution. But I'd suggest taking heed of the last line which amounts to 'We know we've been generous this time: we won't be if there's a next time'. So in future you must make sure you buy the right ticket before getting on a train. If you use the trains more than occasionally, there are railcards for people aged between 16 and 30 which - once you have bought the railcard - can reduce some train fares, and anyone in the South East can buy a Network Railcard which will also reduce some fares. But if you use a Railcard, make sure you quote the right one when you buy your ticket - some give different discounts and they all have slightly different rules, and you can get in trouble if you say you're using the wrong card.

 

[anonymousfig]

How old are you?

20. I was well aware I shouldn't have purchased a child ticket but I was in extreme financial strife and have friends who have also evaded more expensive fares this way. Not doing this ever again

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jun 2026 ==

That's certainly a generous resolution. But I'd suggest taking heed of the last line which amounts to 'We know we've been generous this time: we won't be if there's a next time'. So in future you must make sure you buy the right ticket before getting on a train. If you use the trains more than occasionally, there are railcards for people aged between 16 and 30 which - once you have bought the railcard - can reduce some train fares, and anyone in the South East can buy a Network Railcard which will also reduce some fares. But if you use a Railcard, make sure you quote the right one when you buy your ticket - some give different discounts and they all have slightly different rules, and you can get in trouble if you say you're using the wrong card.

Absolutely! I've definitely learnt from this and will only allow this to be my single instance of extremely bad judgement. The whole ordeal was Not worth the stress and I will stick to paying the correct fares

 

[MartinC]

Hi,

I've been browsing this forum for a few weeks since I was stopped on the 5th this month for travelling with a child ticket.

I've never evaded fares before nor deliberately bought a different ticket to avoid higher fares in the past. But I was stopped by a ticket inspection officer at Waterloo and was given a Travel Irregularity Report and assumed I would be sent a letter with the intention to prosecute and I'd have to ask for an out-of-court settlement judging by other posts on this forum.

To my surprise, I received the letter today and was simply given a warning. All that anxiety for nothing.

Was wondering if this is common for first-time offences? I don't usually see people mentioning these.

An idle thought , but I wonder if there was a technical fault with the paper work issued at Waterloo, bearing in mind that SWT must be fully aware of the eagle eyes on this forum?

 

[anonymousfig]

An idle thought , but I wonder if there was a technical fault with the paper work issued at Waterloo, bearing in mind that SWT must be fully aware of the eagle eyes on this forum?

I don't know what technical issues could arise between being given the TIR and the report being sent off to SWR's Prosecution team. But I did see the form that the officer submitted and I fully complied and didn't try to cause any more issues.

I've heard SWR is generally more forgiving with first-time offences and I was fully prepared to handle any fees involved. All in all, I can just say I'm grateful for their generosity this time round

 

[furlong]

People who get these letters have no reason to search for help on the internet so naturally you're only rarely going to see them mentioned on here.

 

[tatitiliti]

Hi,

I've been browsing this forum for a few weeks since I was stopped on the 5th this month for travelling with a child ticket.

I've never evaded fares before nor deliberately bought a different ticket to avoid higher fares in the past. But I was stopped by a ticket inspection officer at Waterloo and was given a Travel Irregularity Report and assumed I would be sent a letter with the intention to prosecute and I'd have to ask for an out-of-court settlement judging by other posts on this forum.

To my surprise, I received the letter today and was simply given a warning. All that anxiety for nothing.

Was wondering if this is common for first-time offences? I don't usually see people mentioning these.

Surely there has to be something wrong here (e.g. insufficient evidence to prosecute)? Or they saw that it was definitely a one-off? I’ve never seen this for an adult apart from TfL who don’t settle out of court.

But even if this is the only offence, it puzzles me why a TOC wouldn’t want a free couple of hundred pounds…

 

[walkingsophie]

Surely there has to be something wrong here (e.g. insufficient evidence to prosecute)? Or they saw that it was definitely a one-off? I’ve never seen this for an adult apart from TfL who don’t settle out of court.

SWR eventually gave me the same copy pasted message in my routeing dispute too, so it's definitely not something they don't do at all

 

[tatitiliti]

SWR eventually gave me the same copy pasted message in my routeing dispute too, so it's definitely not something they don't do at all

But that was for something where you were 100% in the right and SWR was 100% in the wrong, and SWR behaved appallingly and evasively through the entirety! You’re being extremely kind to SWR to call it a ‘dispute’ when SWR was entirely ignoring basic NRCoT and, if it were up to me, would get a fine into the tens of thousands from a properly functioning regulator.

In this case, is OP fraudulently buying child tickets…

 

[Egg Centric]

@anonymousfig The more you're prepared to tell us about the circumstances the better for helping others, but of course this is a voluntary service! Any of us can come up with all sorts of theories (e.g. was this the only RPI you spoke to and did they resign days later) but accurate speculation needs information. Otherwise, this sort of datum is still helpful just so we know it's there.