I’ll start by saying I know I made a stupid mistake and during a stretch of poor judgement. That said, today I boarded a transpennine express train and got caught giving false details to the inspector after being caught using a child ticket (I am 18). I then gave him my real details and he took a picture of my ticket bought through trainline, recorded the conversation and issues me a penalty fare notice of £50 plus the original fare cost. If I pay this within 21 days, what is the realistic likelihood anything more happens such as prosecution?
Many thanks
Welcome.
You have been lucky. A penalty fare is the least worst option you can be given for the ticketing issue. So a lucky escape from a full investigation into your ticket buying as I suspect you have been buying child tickets on other occasions too. It’s quite common for train companies to trawl all your digital buying history and charge you for past ticket evasion under threat of prosecution for the time a passenger was caught red handed with the wrong ticket. This is also common for Railcard misdemeanours too. Including ‘honest mistakes’ of forgetting to renew it but continuing to buy the discounted tickets.
Paying the Penalty Fare promptly will almost certainly close the matter down and allow you to get £50 off.
But they have your details now so likely you won’t be so lucky next time as you are on their radar.
Are you eligible for a railcard? If so get o ne to legitimately reduce your fares.
Giving false details is a separate offence on the railway. But I can’t recall a case on this forum if anyone coming here saying they are being prosecuted for that. So it seems unlikely they would pursue you separately for that.
