Being prosecuted under s5(3)(a) Railways Act for expired railway card

[bunnies123]

Hi, looking for any advice on how to deal with this situation.

In February this year I was caught travelling with an expired 16-25 railcard having purchased a ticket with a railcard discount. It was a genuine mistake - I presented my railcard to the officer, was told it expired 2 months prior, and upon the officer's advice I immediately purchased a new railcard on the spot (which I have evidence of). I recall the officer assuring me that it should be fine if I immediately purchased a new railcard.

I have just found a Magistrates Court summons in my mailbox requiring me to appear in court on 26 June. However, I was out of the UK from 25 June - 2 August, and have only just returned and therefore, just discovered this letter today (7 August). It is for a charge under s5(3)(a) of the Railways Act which I understand can result in a criminal conviction.

I have received no notice of having convicted nor any Notice of Fine. However I have received a further steps notice from the London Collection and Compliance Centre for an outstanding amount owed of almost £600.

Any advice on next steps? My number one priority is to avoid a conviction / get my conviction overturned if at all possible. Thank you!

 

[reb0118]

It appears that you have been convicted in your absence of the offence. When providing details for the report did you provide your correct correspondence address?

Most railway companies ask for your side of the story before proceeding to the prosecution stage so did you receive, and ignore, any follow up letters? Which company was it.

Going forward, you have to decide to accept the decision and pay the fine OR, as you were convicted without your knowledge, submit a Statutory Declaration to the magistrates court that dealt with the matter, or via a solicitor or justice of the peace.

The Statutory Declaration resets matters as if the court case never existed BUT you only have 21 days to submit from when you became aware of the conviction. NB if you do so at the magistrates court you may be asked for an immediate plea - so take care as you may end up just being convicted once again.

What is the benefit of the Statutory Declaration you may ask. 1) If granted, it may just give you enough time to contact the railway company concerned to request an out of court settlement. 2) at the very worst it allows you to gain the early plead discount given for those pleading guilty beforehand.

 

[furlong]

Train companies seem to be notorious for trying to renege on agreements made by their frontline staff that would usually be considered binding. If the officer was recording the interaction, you need to ask for a copy so you can check if your recollection was accurate and if so try to hold the company to it.
Which train company was this?
Had you made other journeys with the expired railcard which they might be able to detect from booking systems and if so can you estimate how much they came to?

If you didn't know about the proceedings until now, you can contact the court and arrange to complete what's called a Statutory Declaration to testify that fact, explaining you were out of the country, and they should then re-hear the case. If you contact the train company they might then agree to settle out-of-court for a sum of money and withdraw proceedings. Sometimes you need to plead 'not guilty' to buy time to try to negotiate, but normally you can discuss it with the train company ahead of the Stat Dec so it's agreed what will happen in what sequence.

 

[bunnies123]

It appears that you have been convicted in your absence of the offence. When providing details for the report did you provide your correct correspondence address?

Most railway companies ask for your side of the story before proceeding to the prosecution stage so did you receive, and ignore, any follow up letters? Which company was it.

Going forward, you have to decide to accept the decision and pay the fine OR, as you were convicted without your knowledge, submit a Statutory Declaration to the magistrates court that dealt with the matter, or via a solicitor or justice of the peace.

The Statutory Declaration resets matters as if the court case never existed BUT you only have 21 days to submit from when you became aware of the conviction. NB if you do so at the magistrates court you may be asked for an immediate plea - so take care as you may end up just being convicted once again.

What is the benefit of the Statutory Declaration you may ask. 1) If granted, it may just give you enough time to contact the railway company concerned to request an out of court settlement. 2) at the very worst it allows you to gain the early plead discount given for those pleading guilty beforehand.

I did provide my correct correspondence address. However as I am renting my apartment, my mailbox is filled with hundreds of letters addressed to previous tenants and I am often missing letters I should have received. I know it is not a good excuse at all, but I genuinely was not expecting a letter and have not been checking my mailbox.

The company is SouthWestern railway. I did receive a letter with the offer of settlement - however I also missed it and only uncovered it after an in-depth search of my stacks of letters after finding the summons.

 

[bunnies123]

Train companies seem to be notorious for trying to renege on agreements made by their frontline staff that would usually be considered binding. If the officer was recording the interaction, you need to ask for a copy so you can check if your recollection was accurate and if so try to hold the company to it.
Which train company was this?
Had you made other journeys with the expired railcard which they might be able to detect from booking systems and if so can you estimate how much they came to?

If you didn't know about the proceedings until now, you can contact the court and arrange to complete what's called a Statutory Declaration to testify that fact, explaining you were out of the country, and they should then re-hear the case. If you contact the train company they might then agree to settle out-of-court for a sum of money and withdraw proceedings. Sometimes you need to plead 'not guilty' to buy time to try to negotiate, but normally you can discuss it with the train company ahead of the Stat Dec so it's agreed what will happen in what sequence.

SouthWestern. I have not made any other journeys with the expired railcard.

 

[John R]

When you say “mailbox”, do you mean a physical letter or an email.

What day was it sent? If it was to appear in court on 26th June, it would have been sent some time before that, so the fact that you were away from the 25th should have made no difference to when you saw it.

 

[bunnies123]

When you say “mailbox”, do you mean a physical letter or an email.

What day was it sent? If it was to appear in court on 26th June, it would have been sent some time before that, so the fact that you were away from the 25th should have made no difference to when you saw it.

A physical letter, I've gotten no electronic correspondence on this matter.

I just checked and it was sent 31 May. You're right, it makes no difference and I completely messed up by neglecting to check my mail frequently. Just included the dates for full clarity.

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

You need to make a Statutory Declaration which has the effect of 'resetting the clock', as noted above you only have 21 days to do this once you have become aware of the case. The case will be reheard by the Magistrates but as things currently stand the court would find you guilty.

What you need to do is contact SWR Prosecutions Department as a matter of urgency and tell them what has happened, that you have made a Statutory Declaration and have a new court date. Ask them if they would be prepared to offer you an out of court settlement in return for withdrawing the case from court.

It is not easy to get hold of Prosecutions Departments so you will need to stop what you're doing and get on the case quickly.

 

[WesternLancer]

Good advice above but I would tend to think probably best to avoid mentioning if you can that the reason for this is your own failure to look out for and open post addressed to you at your own address.

I guess you can say truthfully that you were ‘unaware of the court action’.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Aug 2024 ==

If you are drowning under post for previous occupants/tenants I would suggest:

A) contact your local council electoral registration office to get all names no longer resident removed from the electoral register. This is important to do.

B) systematically return post to sender that relates to ex residents. Don't open their post but cross through the name and address and write ‘Return to sender, no longer at this address’ on the envelope then drop it in a pillar box. You do not need to put a stamp on them. Royal Mail will then deliver them back to the sender who of course has an interest in stopping sending letters to out of date addresses as it is a cost to the sender.

If you have a lot of it maybe even print some sticky labels for the purpose if you can easily do that. That's what I did when I moved into my house and endless stuff for previous occupants arrived regularly. Doing the above eventually stopped it.

So that will help stop the flow of such stuff.

 

[John R]

If you are drowning under post for previous occupants/tenants

Not suggesting it's the case here, but the young adults who live with us seem to regard anything that pops through the letterbox addressed to them as a curiosity that needs to sit on a table somewhere for weeks on end, and should not be opened under any circumstances.

 

[BanburyBlue]

Not suggesting it's the case here, but the young adults who live with us seem to regard anything that pops through the letterbox addressed to them as a curiosity that needs to sit on a table somewhere for weeks on end, and should not be opened under any circumstances.

Totally off topic, but the same goes for the young adults, who are in full time employment, who buy everything on the internet for home delivery, and expect the neighbours to continually act as parcel reception points. And also expect said neighbours to take the parcels around, rather than young adult coming to collect.