Complex Situation with Greater Anglia, advice needed.

Hi all,

I've recently had a few issues with Greater Anglia and I'm concerned about what might happen. This is a bit long, so please bare with me.

A few months ago I started travelling regularly into London Liverpool st. Due to being in a rush constantly I'd sometimes buy my ticket once on the train. I got a warning email a few months later about this from Greater Anglia. I send over proof of purchases and my Railcard details and they said it was OK, this is a warning and they won't be perusing, and that was that. From this point on, I make sure to buy my ticket before I get on the train... Except *maybe* one time where I was in a rush and slipped up and had to buy it once I was on the train.

Anyway, fast forward a few months and I take a short journey on the train with a perfectly legitimate ticket bought beforehand. A bunch of fraud investigation staff were checking tickets at my destination (Harlow Town) at the barriers.


They asked to scan my ticket. I let them scan it, then they asked to see through my ticket history... Even though I'd bought all tickets legally, and they couldn't show me one instance of anything otherwise, they said they had reason to believe I might be committing fraud (presumably my name was flagged on their system from the previous incident as mentioned above), and they gave me a notepad requesting my details. I really don't like giving my details away, and I was annoyed that they were demanding this. So I started scrawling something, but then thought better of it, crossed out everything, and scrawled up this first piece of paper. I then continued to write out my correct details.

One of the officers first said "want me throw that away for you?" And I said no. He then practically shouted and demanded I hand over the piece of paper. I can't remember exactly but I think he may have even grabbed it from my hand.

He opened it up and said "see look, he was trying to give false information, keep that as evidence". I insisted i did not give false evidence as I crossed out all those details and went to throw it away. They then let me go.

Now, the address I gave them is where I live, but it doesn't accept post. I was worried that they would send me a letter that I wouldn't be able to access, so I then reached out to the fraud detection team via email and told them about the incident, and to please send any correspondence to another address, where I have family, where I can actually receive the mail.

They didn't reply so I chased them and then they replied:


Good morning,


We are not dealing with this case.


Your email has been passed to our Prosecutions team.


Prosecutions@greateranglia.co.uk.


Please relay any further emails to them.


Now this email has me pretty worried that there's going to be a prosecution against me. But I don't know what for. I didn't actually provide false information, and I've also been paying all my fares diligently since the last warning. Except of course, there might be one journey where I didn't. I honestly can't remember though.

To make things more complicated, on the night of the incident I requested the CCTV footage, because it would show the train staff member grabbing the crumpled paper out of my hand, and therefore I didn't willingly give it over. They've responded to this request asking for my to provide both ID and a proof of address.


With all that being said, I'm in need of advice as below:

Do you see anything here that they could prosecute me for, and do you think they would? E.g. would they try to prosecute me for previously "forgiven" tickets that were bought on the train, now that this incident has occured?

Would they normally send a letter or email if they were to take action against me?

Should I go ahead and confirm my proof of address to gain the CCTV footage? Or is providing more evidence of a different address a bad move?

What is the best way forward for me to get closure on this and to find out if they're going to be a case against me or not? And what is the best way to get them to talk to me and avoid any issues? Should I email the prosecutions team, laying everything out , or should I wait to see if they send me something?

Thank you if you stuck it out this far, I'm very grateful in advance for any advice you can all give me.

Is there any reason your ticket would flag up as suspicious at all? Your history doesn't flag up when your ticket is scanned, they can only see the scan history on the specific ticket (both outward and return for a return ticket). If you used an ITSO smartcard or contactless then they would be able to see if the card is blocked.

Probably best to wait for a letter to see what they are specifically prosecuting you for.

In the meantime you might want to gather up any mitigating evidence to prove your innocence. If you're lucky, you won't receive anything but GA will be monitoring you closely

ohnomrfrodo said:

Anyway, fast forward a few months and I take a short journey on the train

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Did the ticket cover your full journey? Were there barriers at the station you started journey at, if so, did you scan the ticket in?

ohnomrfrodo said:

so I then reached out to the fraud detection team via email and told them about the incident, and to please send any correspondence to another address, where I have family, where I can actually receive the mail.

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Can you clarify exactly what e-mail you used to 'reach out to them' please?

If it was eg customer services then it is correct that customer services would not deal with it

and
Were you given anything with any sort of ref number / or anything else, by the staff you encountered during that ticket check you have mentioned.

If you want to send them a letter or e-mail with a valid postal contact address for you (and which does not go into anything else in order to avoid anything that may incriminate you) - I can post a draft template you can use that has been suggested before - if that would help you at all?

It's vital you receive correspondence from them - so sending something to clarify contact details is a good idea in my view.

If they really want to prosecute you they can find you. It's most likely they just want any money from you that they think you owe (and they may not be correct about that anyway, depending on your purchasing history).

ohnomrfrodo said:

Now, the address I gave them is where I live, but it doesn't accept post.

Click to expand...

ohnomrfrodo said:

Should I go ahead and confirm my proof of address to gain the CCTV footage? Or is providing more evidence of a different address a bad move?

Click to expand...

You have the right to challenge the Data Protection Team's request for your proof of address. Under the Data Protection Act 2018, the information that the data controller (in this case, Greater Anglia) request from you should be enough to ascertain your identity, but nothing more. You can argue that simply proof of ID will be sufficient.

In any event, even if you decide to send them your proof of address, it can be the same as the address you originally gave them (the one where you actually live, but doesn't accept post). The subject access request itself won't lead to any physical mail.

Note also that they may delete CCTV footage after a certain duration, so if you want to follow up on this subject access request, be quick.

It is in your own interests to make sure they can contact you. They had no right to ask for anything other than your name and address Bylaw 23 (1) but they did have the right for that. It's a regulation as old as the hills.

Agreed many of these authorised persons in customer facing roles could do with some training in customer relations - but we are where we are.

Swedenorer said:

They had no right to ask for anything other than your name and address Bylaw 23 (1) but they did have the right for that. It's a regulation as old as the hills.

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They have every right to ask for any information they choose, but it is only a legal requirement to provide name and address.

ohnomrfrodo said:

Anyway, fast forward a few months and I take a short journey on the train with a perfectly legitimate ticket bought beforehand.

Click to expand...

How short was the journey? Where did your ticket originate?

It's important to know the facts so - if the ticket was legitimate - you can head off any accusations. The details will be important because things like station layout and scan history will make a significant difference.

ohnomrfrodo said:

Now, the address I gave them is where I live, but it doesn't accept post

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How does your address "not accept post"?

saismee said:

Is there any reason your ticket would flag up as suspicious at all? Your history doesn't flag up when your ticket is scanned, they can only see the scan history on the specific ticket (both outward and return for a return ticket). If you used an ITSO smartcard or contactless then they would be able to see if the card is blocked.

Click to expand...

I bought the ticket one or two minutes before the train came onto the platform, so perhaps that was suspicious? Otherwise, I have no idea. It could also be that they were going to ask to check my history anyway as part of their daily work trying to catch out fraudsters?

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AlterEgo said:

How short was the journey? Where did your ticket originate?

It's important to know the facts so - if the ticket was legitimate - you can head off any accusations. The details will be important because things like station layout and scan history will make a significant difference.


How does your address "not accept post"?

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One stop, and I bought the ticket on the platform of the originating station just before the train arrived. It has no barriers. Would you need to know the exact stations? I always try to steer clear of posting identifying info online, and don't believe it's important here, but I'm happy to provide if its important to fully assess this. Thanks!

I live on a boat.

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GadgetMan said:

Did the ticket cover your full journey? Were there barriers at the station you started journey at, if so, did you scan the ticket in?

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Ticket covered my full journey, no barriers at the station I started my journey at so no scanning in, I just bought the ticket on my phone.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Jun 2026 ==

Islineclear3_1 said:

Probably best to wait for a letter to see what they are specifically prosecuting you for.

In the meantime you might want to gather up any mitigating evidence to prove your innocence. If you're lucky, you won't receive anything but GA will be monitoring you closely

Click to expand...

Do you think from their email that they are going to try to prosecute me? I wasn't sure whether it was that, or if I should read it as "we have no idea what this case is, so we are passing the buck to the prosecutions team" ?

Do you think I should go ahead and request the CCTV then?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Jun 2026 ==

WesternLancer said:

Can you clarify exactly what e-mail you used to 'reach out to them' please?

If it was eg customer services then it is correct that customer services would not deal with it

and
Were you given anything with any sort of ref number / or anything else, by the staff you encountered during that ticket check you have mentioned.

If you want to send them a letter or e-mail with a valid postal contact address for you (and which does not go into anything else in order to avoid anything that may incriminate you) - I can post a draft template you can use that has been suggested before - if that would help you at all?

It's vital you receive correspondence from them - so sending something to clarify contact details is a good idea in my view.

If they really want to prosecute you they can find you. It's most likely they just want any money from you that they think you owe (and they may not be correct about that anyway, depending on your purchasing history).

Click to expand...

It was fraud.investigations@greateranglia.com

No reference number given by staff at the station

Thank you, that's very kind, I have already sent them an email to this affect - this is the one I sent to the above address, to which I received the reply in my post. So my correct postal address has now been sent to prosecutions@greateranglia.

Yes, I hope so. I think I wouldn't be worried at all if the incident with the incorrect info hadn't happened. The only niggling doubt is the one time I mentioned that I think I bought my ticket on the train. But I can't imagine they'd be so aggressive to prosecute me for that... But I don't know.

Thank you .

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Jun 2026 ==

kijeta said:

You have the right to challenge the Data Protection Team's request for your proof of address. Under the Data Protection Act 2018, the information that the data controller (in this case, Greater Anglia) request from you should be enough to ascertain your identity, but nothing more. You can argue that simply proof of ID will be sufficient.

In any event, even if you decide to send them your proof of address, it can be the same as the address you originally gave them (the one where you actually live, but doesn't accept post). The subject access request itself won't lead to any physical mail.

Note also that they may delete CCTV footage after a certain duration, so if you want to follow up on this subject access request, be quick.

Click to expand...

Thank you, that's incredibly useful information.

This does somewhat leave me in a tricky situation I feel, as part of what I'm worried about is a prosecution around providing false information, so if I refuse to give proof of address for the CCTV footage, they might get even more suspicious (though it is not incriminating in any way).

I cannot provide proof of address for that address because I don't have any post sent here, ha. So if I did send a proof of address, it would need to be the postal address. I've already provided them this postal address in the email but this would be further evidence handed to them on a plate if they wanted to prosecute me and say "look, he gave us false info on the day he was travelling and tried to correct it in email afterwards"

Sorry it's all very confusing, hopefully that makes sense. But I think I'll go ahead and request they accept just my passport for the CCTV.

Thank you

Swedenorer said:

It is in your own interests to make sure they can contact you. They had no right to ask for anything other than your name and address Bylaw 23 (1) but they did have the right for that. It's a regulation as old as the hills.

Agreed many of these authorised persons in customer facing roles could do with some training in customer relations - but we are where we are.

Click to expand...

They managed to contact me by email before for that warning, so I wonder if they'd do the same for any further communications around potential prosecution?

ohnomrfrodo said:

I bought the ticket one or two minutes before the train came onto the platform, so perhaps that was suspicious? Otherwise, I have no idea. It could also be that they were going to ask to check my history anyway as part of their daily work trying to catch out fraudsters?

One stop, and I bought the ticket on the platform of the originating station just before the train arrived. It has no barriers. Would you need to know the exact stations?

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Guessing Roydon, which is a big fare evasion hot spot and sometimes barriered by staff who scan tickets prior to boarding, so they can sting people who lie about boarding there at the next station (always a one stop ticket!).

Given the confidence of the staff that your ticket was not legitimate, is it really true that you did board there? They cannot see a pop up note that you had previous email interaction, but they can see if and when the ticket has been scanned.

ohnomrfrodo said:

Do you think I should go ahead and request the CCTV then?

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Yes. Request the CCTV at the station you claim to have boarded at. Not the whole "crumpled paper incident". They reckon you boarded further down the line, like Stratford. Many such cases.

AlterEgo said:

Guessing Roydon, which is a big fare evasion hot spot and sometimes barriered by staff who scan tickets prior to boarding, so they can sting people who lie about boarding there at the next station (always a one stop ticket!).

Given the confidence of the staff that your ticket was not legitimate, is it really true that you did board there? They cannot see a pop up note that you had previous email interaction, but they can see if and when the ticket has been scanned.



Yes. Request the CCTV at the station you claim to have boarded at. Not the whole "crumpled paper incident". They reckon you boarded further down the line, like Stratford. Many such cases.

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That's a really interesting point. Hand on heart I boarded there, it's where I live!

I didn't think about requesting the CCTV from Roydon at all. As far as I'm concerned they would have to prove I boarded the train at Stratford or somewhere further down the line which they would find no evidence of.

Thank you for your input!

ohnomrfrodo said:

That's a really interesting point. Hand on heart I boarded there, it's where I live!

I didn't think about requesting the CCTV from Roydon at all. As far as I'm concerned they would have to prove I boarded the train at Stratford or somewhere further down the line which they would find no evidence of.

Thank you for your input!

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No, the reason you're in this situation is *they don't think you boarded at Roydon*, and they may think this because they had blockaded Roydon. If they say as part of their evidence you hadn't had your ticket scanned at Roydon by a member of staff then you're in hot water. Request the CCTV from Roydon to show you boarding from there, it takes 5 minutes to do and it will solve the issue if you really did board there.

Providing evidence that you actually live in Roydon will also be helpful to your case.