Advice on GWR prosecutions please.

[brazilianfunky]

hello,

I travelled on a GWR train a few months ago with a paid for ticket under a 16-25 railcard. I am under 25. I have used this railcard for months and it often gets checked with no issue.

During this journey GWR employee scanned my ticket and asked for my railcard. When railcard was scanned the name did not correlate. She briefly spoke to me and asked me to pay the difference in my ticket as we could not explain the discrepancy. I was not cautioned or told I would be reported. I did not give any personal information to the employee, i was not asked for any info. I was not given a fine, or notice, or ref #.

Months later I have received an email from a GWR personnel address with a precourt settlement letter attached. The letter had no letterhead, no reference number. Theyve demanded over £1000 because I travel often with discount. You cant even complain or call prosecutions without a reference number. They can barely help you.

As it was so out of the blue i contacted customer service three times instead. Each time I was assured that this was a scam, to report to the BTP, to ignore the email and do not send money as GWR should give a ref number, send letters to your home or contact from a general address. None of this was my case.

I then submitted a complaint with customer service for them to investigate further because I was unsettled. It has now come back that its not a scam and I need to respond. The information has been confusing and conflicting. However, GWR (I feel) have not followed the procedure outlined in their revenue protections policy. They are demanding ££ or court. Im scared but I cannot help but feel GWR are in the wrong here. I feel backed into a corner to say I’ve done something I have no knowledge of doing! Am i right?

 

[Pushpit]

When railcard was scanned the name did not correlate.

Welcome to the Forum that you never wanted to join.

It would really help if you could expand on this, but there may be reasons why not to expand too. If you were in fact borrowing someone else's railcard then clearly there is a problem which won't be easy to resolve. But if you had a railcard in your name and did not lend it out to others, then from what you have said then you appear to have done nothing wrong. You may need to send GWR a copy of that railcard to deal with the matter.

If there is more to this than you have stated so far, if you want the best advice you better let us know.

As a starting point, perhaps you could share the GWR email, redacted to remove personal details. At the moment we don't have a lot to go on.

 

[Adam Williams]

It would really help if you could expand on this

Agree with this.

If it was indeed your railcard that was scanned, and the details were incorrect - then something has gone very wrong here.

Where did you buy the railcard from?

 

[brazilianfunky]

Hi, thank you.

Do you think the problems with GWR not following procedure or providing me with the right information is a problem even if the rail card was not mine or someone purchased it on my behalf?

How can i be reported when i was not alerted on the journey & now there is no case ref etc?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Feb 2025 ==

I do have a valid rail card at the present moment. I wouldnt be able to provide past evidence for old rail card used though…

 

[Cuthbert]

The person that scanned your ticket and railcard would have sent the details to there revenue protection/ fraud department. As having a railcard that is not yours is naughty.

 

[John R]

Hi, thank you.

Do you think the problems with GWR not following procedure or providing me with the right information is a problem even if the rail card was not mine or someone purchased it on my behalf?

How can i be reported when i was not alerted on the journey & now there is no case ref etc?

So are you saying the Railcard wasn't yours? If so, I suggest that any procedural issues with the case are a secondary consideration to the fact that you have been travelling without a Railcard, and thus fraudulently, and are very much open to prosecution.

 

[dazzler17]

Hi, thank you.

Do you think the problems with GWR not following procedure or providing me with the right information is a problem even if the rail card was not mine or someone purchased it on my behalf?

How can i be reported when i was not alerted on the journey & now there is no case ref etc?

You have been using someone else’s railcard. Im guessing that you also changed the picture too (otherwise it would be obvious when you opened it to revenue staff). This is blantant bang to rights case. If I was you I would pay this and avoid the conviction and count myself lucky I had that option.

The fact that you weren’t given a penalty fare or any paperwork at the time does not mitigate what you have done. You can complain about it to the company however I suspect they will look at it as two separate things. 1 being your fare evasion and 2. The way it was handled.

 

[Cuthbert]

You have been using someone else’s railcard. Im guessing that you also changed the picture too (otherwise it would be obvious when you opened it to revenue staff). This is blantant bang to rights case. If I was you I would pay this and avoid the conviction and count myself lucky I had that option.

The fact that you weren’t given a penalty fare or any paperwork at the time does not mitigate what you have done. You can complain about it to the company however I suspect they will look at it as two separate things. 1 being your fare evasion and 2. The way it was handled.

Could have been a train guard.

 

[brazilianfunky]

You have been using someone else’s railcard. Im guessing that you also changed the picture too (otherwise it would be obvious when you opened it to revenue staff). This is blantant bang to rights case. If I was you I would pay this and avoid the conviction and count myself lucky I had that option.

The fact that you weren’t given a penalty fare or any paperwork at the time does not mitigate what you have done. You can complain about it to the company however I suspect they will look at it as two separate things. 1 being your fare evasion and 2. The way it was handled.

Ah okay understood that it would be two separate things. Thank u

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Feb 2025 ==

Could have been a train guard.

Oh !

 

[John R]

In terms of "demanding over £1000", what they have done is ignored what you have paid for the tickets, and charged you the full Anytime Single fare for each journey that you fraudulently travelled on. If that includes any long distance travel, the Anytime Single fare is far more than most leisure travellers would pay - for example London to Bristol is £132.60. Double that for a return journey.

So the cost to you of not paying £30 for a Railcard is going to be rather expensive. Your alternative is to be prosecuted and inevitably end up with a conviction, which probably won't cost much less, and could have other implications in terms of employment etc. It's your choice, but most people seem to prefer not to have the criminal record.

 

[WesternLancer]

hello,

I travelled on a GWR train a few months ago with a paid for ticket under a 16-25 railcard. I am under 25. I have used this railcard for months and it often gets checked with no issue.

During this journey GWR employee scanned my ticket and asked for my railcard. When railcard was scanned the name did not correlate. She briefly spoke to me and asked me to pay the difference in my ticket as we could not explain the discrepancy. I was not cautioned or told I would be reported. I did not give any personal information to the employee, i was not asked for any info. I was not given a fine, or notice, or ref #.

Months later I have received an email from a GWR personnel address with a precourt settlement letter attached. The letter had no letterhead, no reference number. Theyve demanded over £1000 because I travel often with discount. You cant even complain or call prosecutions without a reference number. They can barely help you.

As it was so out of the blue i contacted customer service three times instead. Each time I was assured that this was a scam, to report to the BTP, to ignore the email and do not send money as GWR should give a ref number, send letters to your home or contact from a general address. None of this was my case.

I then submitted a complaint with customer service for them to investigate further because I was unsettled. It has now come back that its not a scam and I need to respond. The information has been confusing and conflicting. However, GWR (I feel) have not followed the procedure outlined in their revenue protections policy. They are demanding ££ or court. Im scared but I cannot help but feel GWR are in the wrong here. I feel backed into a corner to say I’ve done something I have no knowledge of doing! Am i right?

When you say the name did not correlate can you explain what you mean by that?

 

[AlterEgo]

Hi, thank you.

Do you think the problems with GWR not following procedure or providing me with the right information is a problem even if the rail card was not mine or someone purchased it on my behalf?

Exactly whose railcard is it? Is it yours? Does it have your name on it? Does it have your photo on it? Is it a railcard on a piece of plastic or is it a digital railcard? If it’s a digital railcard, are you showing this in an app or are you showing a screenshot?

These are really important questions and you should answer all of them, and we need to establish exactly what has happened and whether you have any defence.