GWR Settlement Offer £256.15 after interview under caution - advice please

Hi all,


I have received a settlement offer from GWR and would appreciate some advice.


Desired outcome


Ideally I would like to understand whether there is any realistic prospect of reducing the settlement amount or whether I should accept it as offered. I would also like to understand the risk of prosecution if I do not accept the settlement.


Journey details


Actual journey: London Paddington to Newton Abbot on 15 August 2026.


Ticket


I purchased a Teignmouth to Newton Abbot ticket.


Railcard


I held a valid Railcard. There is no issue regarding Railcard validity.


What happened


When I arrived at Newton Abbot I did not have a valid ticket covering the full journey.


I approached the gateline and explained that my phone had died. During that conversation I told the gateline employee that I had come from London.


I was allowed through to charge my phone. After charging it, I purchased a Teignmouth to Newton Abbot ticket.


I was then spoken to by a Revenue Protection Officer and interviewed under caution. During that interview I stated that I had been driven from London to Teignmouth and travelled by rail from Teignmouth to Newton Abbot.


I have now received a settlement offer alleging travel from London Paddington to Newton Abbot and requesting payment of £256.15.


Questions

1. Is £256.15 typical for a single-journey GWR settlement?
2. Do GWR negotiate settlement amounts or payment arrangements?
3. How often do GWR investigate additional journeys after issuing a settlement offer for one journey?
4. Have members seen GWR prosecute single-journey cases where a settlement offer was rejected?

I have attached a redacted copy of the settlement letter.


Thanks in advance.

joeybloggs said:

Hi all,


I have received a settlement offer from GWR and would appreciate some advice.


Desired outcome


Ideally I would like to understand whether there is any realistic prospect of reducing the settlement amount or whether I should accept it as offered. I would also like to understand the risk of prosecution if I do not accept the settlement.


Journey details


Actual journey: London Paddington to Newton Abbot on 15 August 2026.


Ticket


I purchased a Teignmouth to Newton Abbot ticket.


Railcard


I held a valid Railcard. There is no issue regarding Railcard validity.


What happened


When I arrived at Newton Abbot I did not have a valid ticket covering the full journey.


I approached the gateline and explained that my phone had died. During that conversation I told the gateline employee that I had come from London.


I was allowed through to charge my phone. After charging it, I purchased a Teignmouth to Newton Abbot ticket.


I was then spoken to by a Revenue Protection Officer and interviewed under caution. During that interview I stated that I had been driven from London to Teignmouth and travelled by rail from Teignmouth to Newton Abbot.


I have now received a settlement offer alleging travel from London Paddington to Newton Abbot and requesting payment of £256.15.


Questions

1. Is £256.15 typical for a single-journey GWR settlement?
2. Do GWR negotiate settlement amounts or payment arrangements?
3. How often do GWR investigate additional journeys after issuing a settlement offer for one journey?
4. Have members seen GWR prosecute single-journey cases where a settlement offer was rejected?

I have attached a redacted copy of the settlement letter.


Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum.

To answer your questions as well as I can:

1. According to https://www.brfares.com/!fares?orig=PAD&dest=NTA&period=20260705, which is unofficial but does use official railway data, standard class 'walkup' single tickets from Paddington to Newton Abbot cost between £65.80 and £149.50, depending on various restrictions. So GWR seems to be asking for one of these, plus an admin charge of between £199.35 and £115.65. (N.b. sums done in my head so I am open to correction). While there's an ongoing argument on this forum about what should be charged for admin, my personal view is that if challenged GWR could defend these figures.
2. A recent thread (subsequently deleted) showed that there was some room for negotiation. But we never heard of whether the negotiation was successful, and the circumstances involved some very specific facts which are unlikely to be replicated in your case. You may be able to try negotiating but there's no guarantee at all of success.
3. This is something that train companies in general are doing more and more. As you have come to their attention, you are a more plausible target than someone who they haven't stopped.
4.We don't see much from GWR so have a limited evidence base, but in general train companies are entirely prepared to follow through and take cases to court if they aren't settled before then.

This means that you should probably ask

5. How good are my chances if this goes to court?

Click to expand...

And I would answer
5. In my opinion, poor. While the prosecution (the railway) have to make their case 'beyond reasonable doubt' that's not the same as showing that nothing else could have happened. Since your story is that

joeybloggs said:

I approached the gateline and explained that my phone had died. During that conversation I told the gateline employee that I had come from London.


I was allowed through to charge my phone. After charging it, I purchased a Teignmouth to Newton Abbot ticket.


I was then spoken to by a Revenue Protection Officer and interviewed under caution. During that interview I stated that I had been driven from London to Teignmouth and travelled by rail from Teignmouth to Newton Abbot

Click to expand...

The court may struggle to believe that (a) your phone had gone flat and (b) that you had got a lift all the way from London to the previous station. Bluntly, unless there's evidence other than your word to support this story, they may decide that you're lying.

So you should probably also ask us

6. What should I do?

Click to expand...

and I would answer (although others might say something else)

6. Pay the offered settlement. Realistically, GWR won't move much or at all, and if you go to court then the fine and court fees on top of the compensation will probably add up to more

£250 for attempting to cheat the railway out of nearly all the fare due and doubling down on it with a preposterous story is a steal. Yes, you can negotiate, but if you fail they'll just prosecute you for the offence and you end up with a criminal record. They'll also potentially dig into your past journeys if you don't accept their ready made settlement offer and it gets passed to someone else to deal with. Probably not something you want to happen.

joeybloggs said:

Hi all,


I have received a settlement offer from GWR and would appreciate some advice.


Desired outcome


Ideally I would like to understand whether there is any realistic prospect of reducing the settlement amount or whether I should accept it as offered. I would also like to understand the risk of prosecution if I do not accept the settlement.


Journey details


Actual journey: London Paddington to Newton Abbot on 15 August 2026.


Ticket


I purchased a Teignmouth to Newton Abbot ticket.


Railcard


I held a valid Railcard. There is no issue regarding Railcard validity.


What happened


When I arrived at Newton Abbot I did not have a valid ticket covering the full journey.


I approached the gateline and explained that my phone had died. During that conversation I told the gateline employee that I had come from London.


I was allowed through to charge my phone. After charging it, I purchased a Teignmouth to Newton Abbot ticket.


I was then spoken to by a Revenue Protection Officer and interviewed under caution. During that interview I stated that I had been driven from London to Teignmouth and travelled by rail from Teignmouth to Newton Abbot.


I have now received a settlement offer alleging travel from London Paddington to Newton Abbot and requesting payment of £256.15.


Questions

1. Is £256.15 typical for a single-journey GWR settlement?
2. Do GWR negotiate settlement amounts or payment arrangements?
3. How often do GWR investigate additional journeys after issuing a settlement offer for one journey?
4. Have members seen GWR prosecute single-journey cases where a settlement offer was rejected?

I have attached a redacted copy of the settlement letter.


Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

You’re lucky to get a settlement offer for this amount when the alternative is being prosecuted in court and having to pay anyway, or investigating past travel history.

Sure, if the settlement were into the thousands with multiple journeys they got wrong, and where you’d likely end up paying substantially less in court anyway, I’d say you definitely have more leverage to negotiate as the risk/reward is substantially different both for you and for GWR.

But, here, to be entirely frank with you, only a fool would attempt to argue with a £250 settlement offer after getting caught red-handed committing deliberate fare evasion.

Pay it and stop being stupid. You did not have a valid ticket at any point since the only thing you seem to be able to prove as I read it is that you bought a short fare at the destination. Why did you even waste that money? If prosecuted you would be found guilty.

Jist to add to this, Newton Abbot is in Devon (I'm reasonably familiar with that area from past holidays) and Teignmouth is the station before Newton Abbot.
So coming in from London across multiple counties into Devon, and short faring by purchasing a ticket for one stop in Devon - no that's not going to wash if this made it to court.
Plus, if prosecuted under the Byelaws, is a strict liability offence - no intent required - GWR would only need to prove the offence took place (which it did, as the OP was stopped at Newton Abbot).

A fine, surcharge and court costs would probably add up to more than £250 ‐ and you'd still have to pay compensation for the fare owed. My advice...pay up the settlement figure, and quickly.

And always buy the CORRECT fare going forwards (before boarding the train)!

spotify95 said:

So coming in from London across multiple counties into Devon, and short faring by purchasing a ticket for one stop in Devon - no that's not going to wash if this made it to court.
Plus, if prosecuted under the Byelaws, is a strict liability offence - no intent required - GWR would only need to prove the offence took place (which it did, as the OP was stopped at Newton Abbot).

Click to expand...

One must suppose that the train left from one of the open platforms at Paddington and there was no inspection on the train.

MarlowDonkey said:

One must suppose that the train left from one of the open platforms at Paddington and there was no inspection on the train.

Click to expand...

One might do but the OP pretty much admitted travelling from London.

Haywain said:

One might do but the OP pretty much admitted travelling from London.

Click to expand...

In fairness, the OP has been admirably honest with us (more so, I think than they were with GWR) which has helped us to give relevant advice, and we probably shouldn't be judging them negatively for doing what we ask.

MarlowDonkey said:

One must suppose that the train left from one of the open platforms at Paddington and there was no inspection on the train.

Click to expand...

Not necessarily, someone could use a short ticket from Paddington in order to gain access through the gates

RPI said:

Not necessarily, someone could use a short ticket from Paddington in order to gain access through the gates

Click to expand...

Or use Oyster or contactless, or...

Haywain said:

Or use Oyster or contactless, or...

Click to expand...

Without trying to go off topic too much, contactless can be a risky strategy with the minimum fare being in the £30 region now for not tapping out.

But we digress

Haywain said:

Or use Oyster or contactless, or...

Click to expand...

Almost all trains from the main line Paddington station are first stop at least Slough, so outside the scope of Oyster. I suppose Elizabeth Line trains do still use it from time to time, so the gates would have to accept Oyster.

MarlowDonkey said:

Almost all trains from the main line Paddington station are first stop at least Slough, so outside the scope of Oyster. I suppose Elizabeth Line trains do still use it from time to time, so the gates would have to accept Oyster.

Click to expand...

If you've got a Travelcard loaded it will open the gates and if you are intent on fare dodging why would you worry about anything else? Along with @RPI, I was just pointing out that there are ways of getting past a gateline.

Whilst it’s rather irrelevant you’ll need to understand that it’s not particularly challenging for someone to work out the drive to Newton Abbot is easier and takes the same Amount of time as the drive to Teignmouth.

General statistics tell us that the chances of getting caught doing this on your first attempt is lower than the combined chances of you do it more frequently.

Whilst it would be unwise to say anything about it either way here you may wish to consider whether the rest of your journey history is sound or whether certain other journeys may attract questions you would rather not have to answer.
It would be foolish to not pay the settlement offered straight away to end the matter.

If there is ANY risk that other journeys you have made are not entirely in line with what you have paid for then the recommendation to pay now is orders of magnitude stronger.

robbeech said:

Whilst it’s rather irrelevant you’ll need to understand that it’s not particularly challenging for someone to work out the drive to Newton Abbot is easier and takes the same Amount of time as the drive to Teignmouth.

General statistics tell us that the chances of getting caught doing this on your first attempt is lower than the combined chances of you do it more frequently.

Whilst it would be unwise to say anything about it either way here you may wish to consider whether the rest of your journey history is sound or whether certain other journeys may attract questions you would rather not have to answer.
It would be foolish to not pay the settlement offered straight away to end the matter.

If there is ANY risk that other journeys you have made are not entirely in line with what you have paid for then the recommendation to pay now is orders of magnitude stronger.

Click to expand...

You may even drive almost to Newton Abbot on the A380 and then head to Teignmouth.