Southeastern mg11 advice and help

traveller7 said:

Thank you for advice, i am torn between replying and not, a few more of my concerns if they help in more relevant advice:

- I am on a visa and any prosecution or initiated prosecution can impact my immigration and naturalisation etc.

- I am worried that they might explore previous 3-4 weeks or 2 years+ journeys and potentially find something, could they try it under fraud act? Apologies for being paranoid, worried that not replying can result into them going deeper or receiving surprise court order.

- I emailed them before on the next steps and they told to wait.

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Do you think they might find more evasion if they looked further back?

Its highly unlikely

Southeastern suspended (or seemed to) fare evasion investigations while they underwent restructuring. Evidently they've now completed that but that doesn't really allow them to rewind the clock on the offences they failed to act on in a timely manner.

I don't doubt that they'll have some partial success for some through intimidation but the chances are bleak for others.

Thanks for sharing this, this does make me think now that they have a specialised legal team (page 17), they might reject any out of court settlement and by default prosecute like TFL. Wondering what that might look in my case?


Also by “fraud investigation team” might they mean they are now prosecuting more around Fraud act etc?

Mattplans said:

Southeastern suspended (or seemed to) fare evasion investigations while they underwent restructuring. Evidently they've now completed that but that doesn't really allow them to rewind the clock on the offences they failed to act on in a timely manner.

I don't doubt that they'll have some partial success for some through intimidation but the chances are bleak for others.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/se_prosecutions_department/response/3519371/attach/html/3/Organisation%20Review%20February%202026%20Redacted.pdf.html

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traveller7 said:

Thanks for sharing this, this does make me think now that they have a specialised legal team (page 17), they might reject any out of court settlement and by default prosecute like TFL. Wondering what that might look in my case?


Also by “fraud investigation team” might they mean they are now prosecuting more around Fraud act etc?

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We’ve never seen a fraud prosecution on this forum that I can recall. Only high profile cases reported in the newspapers involving many thousands of pounds in evasion.
Not an evaded £5 oyster card fare.

The railway routinely refers to fare evasion as fraud. But that doesn’t mean they often take people to court for the offence of fraud.

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traveller7 said:

Its not improbable but would be irregular, also I changed oyster card 3-4 weeks before the incident as the previous one broke.

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When train companies look at previous ticket buying records the main one we see involved in such instances is Trainline.

I suspect they can look at Oyster card records if they want to - just that we don't see that very often here from what I can recall.

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traveller7 said:

Thank you for advice, i am torn between replying and not, a few more of my concerns if they help in more relevant advice:

- I am on a visa and any prosecution or initiated prosecution can impact my immigration and naturalisation etc.

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Whilst I have no specialist knowledge on this aspect - you can only weigh up whether you think engaging with SE Trains (ie sending a reply) might resolve the fares issue so that the matter is closed.

traveller7 said:

- I am worried that they might explore previous 3-4 weeks or 2 years+ journeys and potentially find something, could they try it under fraud act? Apologies for being paranoid, worried that not replying can result into them going deeper or receiving surprise court order.

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I don't think any of us here can truly know if replying or not replying makes them more or less likely to investigate your past ticket records.

I suppose you could consider engaging a rail fares specialist solicitor to negotiate and conclude things for you (and I'm sure they would be good at getting the matter concluded) but such a solicitors fees might be around £700 which is of course a lot of money to find

traveller7 said:

- I emailed them before on the next steps and they told to wait.

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traveller7 said:

Thanks for sharing this, this does make me think now that they have a specialised legal team (page 17), they might reject any out of court settlement and by default prosecute like TFL. Wondering what that might look in my case?

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You really are jumping to conclusions. Southeastern are out of time to prosecute a bye-law offence, and they are not going to try their luck with a fraud prosecution for a trivial amount - happily, those days are long past. The worst that can happen to you is a civil case to recover unpaid fares, and they will have to tell you if that is their intention. At this stage, I would just ignore their letter and see what happens next.

Indeed, no benefit in replying (and ignore the follow-up you will surely get, other than to post it here) - see what happens afterwards. But thanks to their delays you're not in serious trouble.

Dear members, I have decided to politely engage to avoid any possibility of a potential civil/fraud/any other retaliation etc. If you could vet the following email strawman (will
Draft the formal email):


Dear Prosecutions Team,

- apologies for any inconvenience in this matter…..

- Given the considerable time that has passed since the incident in November 2025, I had understood that the matter had been closed….

- Nevertheless, I am fully committed to approach this matter in a respectable and cooperative manner… may I sincerely request that I pay the outstanding fare to bring the matter to an amicable conclusion.

- I appreciate your time and consideration and hope a mutually satisfactory resolution can be reached… apologies again etc..

- fact that I am overseas for 3 months and any comms be via email

traveller7 said:

Dear members, I have decided to politely engage to avoid any possibility of a potential civil/fraud/any other retaliation etc. If you could vet the following email strawman (will
Draft the formal email):


Dear Prosecutions Team,

- apologies for any inconvenience in this matter…..

- Given the considerable time that has passed since the incident in November 2025, I had understood that the matter had been closed….

- Nevertheless, I am fully committed to approach this matter in a respectable and cooperative manner… may I sincerely request that I pay the outstanding fare to bring the matter to an amicable conclusion.

- I appreciate your time and consideration and hope a mutually satisfactory resolution can be reached… apologies again etc..

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Firstly, please quote the case reference number in your final letter.

Secondly, whilst I understand why you are taking this approach, you may be leaving yourself open to a high cost. For example, if the TOC says it wants a £500 admin fee to settle, given that you have said that you want to pay to clear the issue, would you be prepared to pay this much? Can you then turn round and say you don't want to settle after all because the cost is too high?

Would it be sensible to suggest that you would be willing to pay £50 towards their costs? In that way, you could back out if the admin fee was too high, and that may also then set a limit for the costs element, given that they should know that they can't threaten you with Court action.

Noted - however, isnt 50 a random figure? Rather is it worth just mentioning the *ticket cost* or something like that?

MotCO said:

Would it be sensible to suggest that you would be willing to pay £50 towards their costs? In that way, you could back out if the admin fee was too high, and that may also then set a limit for the costs element, given that they should know that they can't threaten you with Court action.

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No, they'll charge you to handle your email and the rest of your case, which for the avoidance of doubt is unnecessary and not in your interests to send.

MotCO said:

Firstly, please quote the case reference number in your final letter.

Secondly, whilst I understand why you are taking this approach, you may be leaving yourself open to a high cost. For example, if the TOC says it wants a £500 admin fee to settle, given that you have said that you want to pay to clear the issue, would you be prepared to pay this much? Can you then turn round and say you don't want to settle after all because the cost is too high?

Would it be sensible to suggest that you would be willing to pay £50 towards their costs? In that way, you could back out if the admin fee was too high, and that may also then set a limit for the costs element, given that they should know that they can't threaten you with Court action.

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Solution to this is not to offer to pay them any admin, just offer the fare.
If they then ask for admin (or a admin sum you consider ott) you could consider refusing it.
Only risk would probably be them then going to civil court where I think the admin has to be reasonable.

traveller7 said:

Dear members, I have decided to politely engage to avoid any possibility of a potential civil/fraud/any other retaliation etc.

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Politely engaging is likely to cause you more aggravation and cost than if you just politely ignore their contact and get on with your life.

Share what else they send, but opening up a can of worms is purely in their favour.