Vauxhall to Waterloo Investigation

Hi Augu5tine,
I have recently had a similar email through from DRPU regarding an offence, funnily enough flagging a journey from Vauxhall to Waterloo. They did a full investigation of my account over the last 6 months and flagged 169 irregular/suspicious journeys (namely between 4 different stops that I frequented). This, as I am sure you must have felt from your ordeal, is very stressful haha. There are a number of the 169 "irregularities" that are unjust, things like times where I have travelled from point A to B, gotten a lift from point B to C and wondering how I got from A to C. I sent off my cover email today, along with my railcard and the excel spreadsheet they provided. I am curious, have you heard anything more from the team? How long did it take to hear back? I have explained my situation and hope they can be reasonable about it, as about 70% of these journeys would be on train journeys less than 25 minutes long and I would be saving myself around £0.50-£1.50 per journey, but still not exactly looking forward to a possible summoning and prosecution.
Hope all is going well with your investigation and the panic is over.
If anyone else has any notes/pointers to help me with this, it would be massively appreciated.
To note, all journeys I took were never over 45 minutes and the majority were 23~ minutes.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Jul 2026 ==

WesternLancer said:

you may as well have a read of this copy of a post I made on another thread...

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Hi WesternLancer,
Not too sure how frequently Augu5tine/others would frequent this specific thread but, as I see you are a regular to this site, thought it might be a good idea to reach out to you this way. I made a post above and obviously you do not have to provide an answer but would be curious to see what you think, if you have any further notes?

Chedwards36 said:

Hi Augu5tine,
I have recently had a similar email through from DRPU regarding an offence, funnily enough flagging a journey from Vauxhall to Waterloo. They did a full investigation of my account over the last 6 months and flagged 169 irregular/suspicious journeys (namely between 4 different stops that I frequented). This, as I am sure you must have felt from your ordeal, is very stressful haha. There are a number of the 169 "irregularities" that are unjust, things like times where I have travelled from point A to B, gotten a lift from point B to C and wondering how I got from A to C. I sent off my cover email today, along with my railcard and the excel spreadsheet they provided. I am curious, have you heard anything more from the team? How long did it take to hear back? I have explained my situation and hope they can be reasonable about it, as about 70% of these journeys would be on train journeys less than 25 minutes long and I would be saving myself around £0.50-£1.50 per journey, but still not exactly looking forward to a possible summoning and prosecution.
Hope all is going well with your investigation and the panic is over.
If anyone else has any notes/pointers to help me with this, it would be massively appreciated.
To note, all journeys I took were never over 45 minutes and the majority were 23~ minutes.

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Were you also stopped and questioned about your ticket - or have you just received an e-mail suggesting your ticket buying is suspicious? The difference is very important
Unless it is the former your case is not the same as this thread and not comparable

It's not really the duration time of the journeys that means anything - it's the level of fare revenue evaded. But they seem to treat all irregularities and evasion pretty much the same from what we see on here.

There are other threads where people have completed their response lists and updated so might be worth checking some of them to get an idea of what has happened. Usually a settlement is offered if the narrative is believable

Ref thing like lifts offered between points B&C (eg you get dropped off at Vauxhall - to use an example - by someone who happens to pick you up part way) - perhaps be prepared to evidence it with plausible evidence and be aware that ultimately the person who is giving such a lift potentially needs to be prepared to give evidence they did this under oath in a court to this effect. Lying in court is more serious as far as the court are concerned than fare evasion....but that's only going to happen if it got to court

I suggest it might be an idea to start your own dedicated thread if you have not already done so - just to get advice focussed on your own situation

WesternLancer said:

Were you also stopped and questioned about your ticket - or have you just received an e-mail suggesting your ticket buying is suspicious? The difference is very important
Unless it is the former your case is not the same as this thread and not comparable

It's not really the duration time of the journeys that means anything - it's the level of fare revenue evaded. But they seem to treat all irregularities and evasion pretty much the same from what we see on here.

There are other threads where people have completed their response lists and updated so might be worth checking some of them to get an idea of what has happened. Usually a settlement is offered if the narrative is believable

Ref thing like lifts offered between points B&C (eg you get dropped off at Vauxhall - to use an example - by someone who happens to pick you up part way) - perhaps be prepared to evidence it with plausible evidence and be aware that ultimately the person who is giving such a lift potentially needs to be prepared to give evidence they did this under oath in a court to this effect. Lying in court is more serious as far as the court are concerned than fare evasion....but that's only going to happen if it got to court

I suggest it might be an idea to start your own dedicated thread if you have not already done so - just to get advice focussed on your own situation

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Thank you for getting back to me. It is the latter, I was not stopped but received an email from DRPU. I have already sent off my excel spreadsheet, proof of railcard, explanations etc.

I have been as honest as possible, including where it will not have been flagged and where I evaded a journey completely. I have proof of any taxis and I know the person I got all my lifts from would be willing to testify for me, if it got to that point.

We will see how the respond. I have fully accepted the possibility of prosecution but have asked if there was any way to settle outside of court. I suppose it depends on how reasonable they are willing to be + if they would actually make money from prosecuting me. Again, I have been as honest and open as possible, reasonable, responsive and cooperative so fingers crossed that it can be settled outside of court!

So you've never been stopped?

You should never have responded to that email; all it was doing was trying to elicit a confession and you are now in the territory of trying to legislate every single journey you've ever taken. They didn't have any evidence to prosecute you (or threaten to prosecute you) until you confessed!

AlterEgo said:

So you've never been stopped?

You should never have responded to that email; all it was doing was trying to elicit a confession and you are now in the territory of trying to legislate every single journey you've ever taken. They didn't have any evidence to prosecute you (or threaten to prosecute you) until you confessed!

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Yep. Sadly aware of that now! The only evidence they had was that I did not scan in at Vauxhall. And it was only too late until I realised that I should not have responded. They're bullies, really. It is what it is!

They sent an email on the 10th of June saying I had 14 days to respond OR ELSE. I legitimately did not see it and then saw their second email saying "Hi, just trying to reach out again" (basically). Again, it is what it is.

Chedwards36 said:

Yep. Sadly aware of that now! The only evidence they had was that I did not scan in at Vauxhall. And it was only too late until I realised that I should not have responded. They're bullies, really. It is what it is!

They sent an email on the 10th of June saying I had 14 days to respond OR ELSE. I legitimately did not see it and then saw their second email saying "Hi, just trying to reach out again" (basically). Again, it is what it is.

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If you think they are bullies, they think you are a thief - so I guess it's evens

But essentially yes, sadly you have probably now given them all they need to reclaim these funds form you in civil court action if they wanted to - as you now know. Criminal court prosecution for you is only a remote likelihood (if even that), but going forward you will probably need to maintain a basic dialogue with them and see if you can manage to pay the least you can to them to resolve this (ie the difference between what you did pay and what you should have paid - but they may well ask for more than that - eg whole new tickets price).
It's probably this sum that is what is at stake for you really.
If you stop co-operating they may initiate civil court action for a debt (ie potentially creating a CCJ) - which isn't great - but not like a criminal record.

Chedwards36 said:

They're bullies, really. It is what it is!

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Well no they aren't, they emailed you because they detected you had been defrauding them repeatedly.

If you do this with most other businesses they just call the police and have them arrest you.

@WesternLancer has outlined the way forward for you from here.

Chedwards36 said:

The only evidence they had was that I did not scan in at Vauxhall.

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They only evidence they had was that someone did not scan in at Vauxhall.

WesternLancer said:

If you think they are bullies, they think you are a thief - so I guess it's evens

But essentially yes, sadly you have probably now given them all they need to reclaim these funds form you in civil court action if they wanted to - as you now know. Criminal court prosecution for you is only a remote likelihood (if even that), but going forward you will probably need to maintain a basic dialogue with them and see if you can manage to pay the least you can to them to resolve this (ie the difference between what you did pay and what you should have paid - but they may well ask for more than that - eg whole new tickets price).
It's probably this sum that is what is at stake for you really.
If you stop co-operating they may initiate civil court action for a debt (ie potentially creating a CCJ) - which isn't great - but not like a criminal record.

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Bullies in the same way TV Licence people are bullies. Yeah, you should have one (I definitely do) but... you know... I know a lot of people who don't.

I am hoping that it will be the difference between the original ticket purchased and the actual price + administrative fees. I have a figure in my head of how much I think it will come to so anything below that, I'll be "happy". And, again, would rather not face prosecution.

Chedwards36 said:

Bullies in the same way TV Licence people are bullies. Yeah, you should have one (I definitely do) but... you know... I know a lot of people who don't.

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It's quite important to not let your view of this to come through in anything you send to them. You might think that they are bullies: they're likely to think that they're enforcing what the law says that they're entitled to, and so won't take well to you saying otherwise.

Of course, venting to us here is fine.

Fawkes Cat said:

It's quite important to not let your view of this to come through in anything you send to them. You might think that they are bullies: they're likely to think that they're enforcing what the law says that they're entitled to, and so won't take well to you saying otherwise.

Of course, venting to us here is fine.

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Hahaha yes, of course. I am surprisingly very professional and cooperative in my response to the sausages. But, again, it strikes me the same as TV licences. Yes, you should have one. But if you don't and ignore them, they cannot do anything (which is what I should have done). So it feels a bit like coercion to get their rightful money out of me, hence my claim of calling them bullies.

Maybe, just maybe, if the ticket prices were reduced post-nationalisation of the railways (like was always suggested), we would not be in this position and I would pay for the tickets! Always someone else you can blame other than yourself

Chedwards36 said:

Hahaha yes, of course. I am surprisingly very professional and cooperative in my response to the pricks. But, again, it strikes me the same as TV licences. Yes, you should have one. But if you don't and ignore them, they cannot do anything (which is what I should have done).

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In both cases, that is a very dangerous assumption (at least it is if you use it to justify to yourself carrying on as before). “They” might not be able to do anything “now” if you ignore them, but that won’t always be the case

Chedwards36 said:

So it feels a bit like coercion to get their rightful money out of me, hence my claim of calling them bullies.

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Sometimes people don't like to pay for things, but strong-arming someone to make them pay what they owe is definitely not bullying.

Imagine you are a supplier with a customer refusing to pay and you have to take them to court. You are definitely using coercion to get them to pay, but the customer is the one at fault who is forcing you to go to those lengths.

Sasomida said:

Sometimes people don't like to pay for things, but strong-arming someone to make them pay what they owe is definitely not bullying.

Imagine you are a supplier with a customer refusing to pay and you have to take them to court. You are definitely using coercion to get them to pay, but the customer is the one at fault who is forcing you to go to those lengths.

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I have realised I have made a mistake coming to a train forum to try and get sympathy for getting charged obscene amounts of money to go on a 40 minute journey. Again, if the nationalisation of the railway acted as suggested, it would be a different story.

Either way, the verdict is in and I have a fine of £429. Win some, lose some!

What 'fine' do you have If you don;t mind sharing please ?

Chedwards36 said:

I have realised I have made a mistake coming to a train forum to try and get sympathy for getting charged obscene amounts of money to go on a 40 minute journey. Again, if the nationalisation of the railway acted as suggested, it would be a different story.

Either way, the verdict is in and I have a fine of £429. Win some, lose some!

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Unfortunately, had you have come across the forum when the incident first occurred forum members would have been able to give you more specific advice.

On the wider issue of nationalisation and how fare evasion should be dealt with please do feel free to start a new thread in the appropriate section.

Chedwards36 said:

I have realised I have made a mistake coming to a train forum to try and get sympathy for getting charged obscene amounts of money to go on a 40 minute journey. Again, if the nationalisation of the railway acted as suggested, it would be a different story.

Either way, the verdict is in and I have a fine of £429. Win some, lose some!

Click to expand...

It's perhaps worth noting that the easy way to avoid losing is to pay the right train fare each time before you board. As the railway now know enough about you to have charged you either a fine or an out of court settlement, they probably have enough to know who you are and to keep an eye out for you. They are less likely to settle out of court if they catch you again, so now is the time for discretion to be the better part of valour.

Chedwards36 said:

I have realised I have made a mistake coming to a train forum to try and get sympathy for getting charged obscene amounts of money to go on a 40 minute journey

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There’s no shortage of people using this forum who feel that trains are obscenely expensive

Chedwards36 said:

I have realised I have made a mistake coming to a train forum to try and get sympathy for getting charged obscene amounts of money to go on a 40 minute journey. Again, if the nationalisation of the railway acted as suggested, it would be a different story.

Either way, the verdict is in and I have a fine of £429. Win some, lose some!

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You will get help, yes.

With an attitude yours, you’ll find very little sympathy, however. From one lay person to another, I suggest adjusting said attitude might help you when you next use the railway.

Chedwards36 said:

I have realised I have made a mistake coming to a train forum to try and get sympathy for getting charged obscene amounts of money to go on a 40 minute journey. Again, if the nationalisation of the railway acted as suggested, it would be a different story.

Either way, the verdict is in and I have a fine of £429. Win some, lose some!

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You have come to a train forum where people give up their free time to offer their expertise to help people and receive nothing in return.

Fawkes Cat said:

It's perhaps worth noting that the easy way to avoid losing is to pay the right train fare each time before you board. As the railway now know enough about you to have charged you either a fine or an out of court settlement, they probably have enough to know who you are and to keep an eye out for you. They are less likely to settle out of court if they catch you again, so now is the time for discretion to be the better part of valour.

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Yep, cheers Fawkes Cat...
In the few train journeys I have done since, I have been paying full price. I may be stupid, but I'm not an idiot hahahaha