Greater Anglia Fraud Investigation

[mechacool]

I got an email saying they believe i have not been paying full fares for some journeys I have a 7 days to potentially settle this case.
They did not tell me which joruneys this relates to and i requested for them to provide which journeys they are talking about.
I have previously this year been caught for short faring however i paid my penalty fare for this immediately.
How should i proceed?

 

[Swedenorer]

Do nothing seems to be the general advice. If you paid the PF that case is closed. But as you have engaged by replying search some other threads re GA in the disputes section. When you get their reply come back.

See this thread https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/greater-anglia-fraud-investigation-email.305131/#post-7878587

 

[WesternLancer]

I got an email saying they believe i have not been paying full fares for some journeys I have a 7 days to potentially settle this case.
They did not tell me which joruneys this relates to and i requested for them to provide which journeys they are talking about.
I have previously this year been caught for short faring however i paid my penalty fare for this immediately.
How should i proceed?

apart from the previous Penalty Fare have you been stopped by staff asked about your tickets and your details recorded in any way? This is very important - if they caught you red handed they can take you to the magistrates court for a criminal offence that they can prove and they have 6 months in which to do so for that offense.

If the Penalty Fare in the past was for deliberately not having the correct ticket / short faring etc - then it seems to me that you paid that (the price of being caught occasionally?) but then went on to do more evasion again, when you were already on their radar due to the Penalty Fare - and with your further evasion left clear digital finger prints for them to find and follow - which they have done.
I would say that in my opinion that wasn't very smart.

I would suggest you need to see what they now reply to you with given you asked them for more details.

If you were not caught red handed the advice usually given on here is to ignore further e-mails from them. Buy correct fares going forward for your travel, Possibly change who you buy tickets from.

 

[Haywain]

When you get their reply come back.

And do not respond to it!

 

[mechacool]

apart from the previous Penalty Fare have you been stopped by staff asked about your tickets and your details recorded in any way? This is very important - if they caught you red handed they can take you to the magistrates court for a criminal offence that they can prove and they have 6 months in which to do so for that offense.

If the Penalty Fare in the past was for deliberately not having the correct ticket / short faring etc - then it seems to me that you paid that (the price of being caught occasionally?) but then went on to do more evasion again, when you were already on their radar due to the Penalty Fare - and with your further evasion left clear digital finger prints for them to find and follow - which they have done.
I would say that in my opinion that wasn't very smart.

I would suggest you need to see what they now reply to you with given you asked them for more details.

If you were not caught red handed the advice usually given on here is to ignore further e-mails from them. Buy correct fares going forward for your travel, Possibly change who you buy tickets from.

apart from the previous Penalty Fare have you been stopped by staff asked about your tickets and your details recorded in any way? This is very important - if they caught you red handed they can take you to the magistrates court for a criminal offence that they can prove and they have 6 months in which to do so for that offense.

If the Penalty Fare in the past was for deliberately not having the correct ticket / short faring etc - then it seems to me that you paid that (the price of being caught occasionally?) but then went on to do more evasion again, when you were already on their radar due to the Penalty Fare - and with your further evasion left clear digital finger prints for them to find and follow - which they have done.
I would say that in my opinion that wasn't very smart.

I would suggest you need to see what they now reply to you with given you asked them for more details.

If you were not caught red handed the advice usually given on here is to ignore further e-mails from them. Buy correct fares going forward for your travel, Possibly change who you buy tickets from.

Hello I received the following reply from them

In accordance with your monitoring purchase history. This is where the tickets may not be reflecting your full journey.

Some Examples

From	To
Ingatestone	Chelmsford
Ingatestone	Chelmsford
Chelmsford	Shenfield
Chelmsford	Shenfield
Shenfield	Chelmsford
Shenfield	Chelmsford
Chelmsford	Shenfield
Chelmsford	Shenfield
Chelmsford	Ingatestone
Stratford (London)	London Liverpool Street
Chelmsford	Ingatestone
Ingatestone	Chelmsford
Ingatestone	Chelmsford
Ingatestone	Chelmsford
Ingatestone	Chelmsford
Chelmsford	Stratford (London)
Chelmsford	Ingatestone
Stratford (London)	London Liverpool Street
Chelmsford	Ingatestone

There is no scan data on your ticket at Shenfield, and we have checked with our systems, which verifies that all barriers were in operation and fully manned on the dates you were travelling.

Historic ticket data suggests your full journeys are between Stratford/Liverpool Street and Chelmsford. This is down to timings of trains, scan dates and prior ticket purchases.

Can you confirm your full journeys on Greater Anglia services please?

 

[Haywain]

I would strongly advise against responding and against continuing this very obvious short faring and doughnutting.

 

[mechacool]

I would strongly advise against responding and against continuing this very obvious short faring and doughnutting.

So I shouldn’t respond? Like at all at the end of the email they say

At this stage we would like to offer you an opportunity to explain these irregularities on your account, and based on your response the decision will be to either offer you the opportunity to repay any funds relating to these journeys (plus our administration fee), (b) to forward your case to our prosecutions department for processing or (c) close your case (if sufficient evidence has been provided and proved).

I’m only worrided that if I don’t reply they might escalate it straight to prosecutions department

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Aug 2026 ==

I would strongly advise against responding and against continuing this very obvious short faring and doughnutting.

So I shouldn’t respond? Like at all at the end of the email

 

[323235]

They are unlikely to escalate it anywhere if they have no evidence it was you who used the tickets. At the moment if there’s scan data they know someone used it but not who. They are just looking for you to drop yourself in it and hand them a wad of cash. If you want to do this then go right ahead and continue talking to them.

If you say nothing it should just end up going nowhere and they’ll move onto the next person (until they get stopped from doing it by industry changes).

Stop contacting them and consider it a warning and stop donutting / short faring, so they don’t end up catching you in the act and prosecuting you.

In the very unlikely event they do try to take it to court then you can worry and come back for advice / try to settle with them.

 

[tatitiliti]

I got an email saying they believe i have not been paying full fares for some journeys I have a 7 days to potentially settle this case.
They did not tell me which joruneys this relates to and i requested for them to provide which journeys they are talking about.
I have previously this year been caught for short faring however i paid my penalty fare for this immediately.
How should i proceed?

Ignore once, ignore twice and ignore thrice.

… And ensure you have the correct ticket for your entire journey in future as they may attempt to catch you in the act.

 

[Haywain]

So I shouldn’t respond? Like at all at the end of the email

No, you should not respond.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Hello @mechacool - I'll add a couple of things, to the wise, experienced advice from the other contributors:

Prosecutions (and Settlement Offers) are - and must be - when a ToC (or their acting agent) has evidence Beyond Reasonable Doubt of specific fare-avoidance offence(s).

- Your post 1 told us you were caught earlier this year for fare-avoidance (i.e. Beyond Reasonable Doubt) and you were issued a Penalty Fare Notice, which you paid.

- Greater Anglia's correspondences to you, the ones you told us of in your post 1 and post 5 - is where GA has gathered data to suggest On The Balance of Probability the journeys you took in that list were all short fares. Only you know which of those were you fare-avoiding; but - critically - GA does not know, unless they receive evidence
It means that, without them receiving your own admission of guilt, GA does not have Beyond Reasonable Doubt and they cannot prove you explicitly fare-avoided on those dates.

So, as others have said:
1l do not respond further to GA.
2) if you were short-faring some or all of the jpurneys GA has listed, then keep that knowldge to yourself.
3) GA has your details, your digital footprint and now GA has high-suspicion of a habitual fare-avoidance activity by you. So, if you are still short-faring - stop it. You will be more likely to be caught again; and then more likely to receive a straight-to-prosecution.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

I echo Sun Chariot’s advice most strongly.
They have suspicions, but no proof.
But they know your travel patterns and depending how you get through the gates, your times of travel?
If you’ve watched those Channel 5 documentaries about Revenue Protection staff, you can see how they could catch you in the act…