Caught Using Child Ticket at Waterloo — Felt Pressured and Scared, Now Facing Prosecution

[chrsswr]

Hi everyone,

I’m posting this because I feel really scared and unsure of what’s going to happen next. I was caught at London Waterloo for using a child ticket when I’m actually 18. I know it was a stupid and dishonest decision, and I take full responsibility for it. But the way the situation was handled has left me shaken.

To explain — I’ve been using South Western Railway for years and normally pay full adult fares. My Trainline account shows around 80 full-price journeys. I’ve only bought child tickets for short, local trips maybe 15–20 times total, saving just a couple of pounds each time. It was wrong, I know that, but it wasn’t some huge fraud scheme — just a stupid, immature mistake that I deeply regret.

This time, I was stopped by a guard who asked me my age. When I didn’t give my address straight away, another guard phoned over the police. That’s when I started to feel extremely anxious and scared. I told the original guard I felt uncomfortable and unsafe giving out my personal information, especially when they started asking to go through my phone.

But he cut me off mid-sentence and kept pressuring me. He asked me to open apps like Health and Trainline to “prove my age” and forced me to go through all my recent tickets while he watched. I felt like I couldn’t say no — I was scared, I thought I’d get in even worse trouble if I didn’t comply, especially with police supposedly on the way. I didn’t truly consent to handing over my information, I just panicked.

In the end, he gave me a prosecution notice and made me sign it. I didn’t fully understand what was happening — I signed it because I felt forced, not because I understood what I was agreeing to. He was vague about what would happen next, and now I’m terrified this could lead to a criminal record.

I told him I couldn’t even afford the full price ticket back home to Reading, but he didn’t seem to care. I also found out later that some of these revenue protection staff get commission for prosecutions, which makes this feel even worse.

My dad thinks I was coerced — that they picked on someone who clearly looked scared and didn’t know their rights. I’m starting to think he’s right. I hate that one mistake like this could affect my whole life.

Has anyone been through something similar? Is there anything I can do to avoid getting a criminal record? Any advice or support would really help right now.

Thanks for reading

 

[30907]

First of all, your reaction (feeling scared and pressured) is common when someone is caught in the act - not only on the railway. If you believe the staff member acted wrongly, then you should raise a complaint, but keep it separate from resolving your persistent cheating. (Refusing to give your address is a separate offence, but it's not likely to have further consequences.)

The good news is that SWR will almost certainly agree to settle out of court if you co-operate with them.

The bad new is that they will investigate your travel history, and you should expect to pay the full adult Anytime fare for each of the times you defrauded them. On the basis of what you have said that won't be a huge amount, but still at least double the amount you saved; they will add on an admin charge of maybe £150 (I don't know what the typical current amount is, but it's not likely to be much over that.

When the letter arrives, come back here for advice - you can have a look for posts by forum member Hadders, who regularly suggests the sort of points you could make in your apology.

Finally, "one mistake" (you've said 15-20, so I would rephrase that) will not affect your whole life, even if you are taken to court - in the grand scheme of things, yours is a petty crime not the Great Train Robbery

 

[John R]

I would agree with the above post that any complaint about the way you were treated should be dealt with separately to the criminal investigation which will now occur, for which you need to be very apologetic, to get SWR to offer you an out of court settlement (which will avoid prosecution and will not be shown on any records).

As for how you were treated - I suspect any complaint will get short shrift. After all, you were caught breaking the law, and compounded it by not providing your details, which itself is another offence, although you won't have known it, which led to the official trying to establish your details by other means. I'm afraid the argument that "I felt reluctant to give out my details (to an officer of the railway)" will always be taken as "I don't want to tell you who I am, so you won't be able to find me and throw the book at me."

Others may comment on whether the officer acted improperly in how they tried to get you to provide the information required, but even if they did, I doubt SWR will be inclined to do anything about it that would be to your satisfaction.

 

[soil]

none of what you write seems relevant or useful to your case.

here SWR know that you are not a child but you claimed to be one.

this is verifiable objective fact.

this is different from for example me tapping in at Waterloo and then being forced to confess that I didn't know I wasn't allowed to use Oyster to Basingstoke, and them using that to prosecute me for "fare evasion with intent to avoid fare". I could reasonably argue that I did not intend to avoid the fare, did not know that my Oyster wasn't valid, but they forced that confession out of me, and it should be excluded from proving me guilty of "avoiding fare with intent to avoid fare".

Here you're simply upset that they pressurised you into revealing facts about your age.

If you lied about your age in court you could just be sent to prison for contempt.

They can next threaten you with prosecution for not having a valid ticket - you clearly did not. There's no need to prove intent for this either, "not having a valid ticket" is an offence on its own.

It might not seem fair that many passengers can get away with their crimes whereas perhaps you were intimidated into admitting yours. But it doesn't mean your anything other than bang to rights.

It would be extremely foolish to pursue this line at all, forget about it, start acting contrite, apologetic, and don't blame the guards because you avoided your fare - they won't entertain your baseless complaint.

 

[simonw]

Hi everyone,

I’m posting this because I feel really scared and unsure of what’s going to happen next. I was caught at London Waterloo for using a child ticket when I’m actually 18. I know it was a stupid and dishonest decision, and I take full responsibility for it. But the way the situation was handled has left me shaken.

To explain — I’ve been using South Western Railway for years and normally pay full adult fares. My Trainline account shows around 80 full-price journeys. I’ve only bought child tickets for short, local trips maybe 15–20 times total, saving just a couple of pounds each time. It was wrong, I know that, but it wasn’t some huge fraud scheme — just a stupid, immature mistake that I deeply regret.

This time, I was stopped by a guard who asked me my age. When I didn’t give my address straight away, another guard phoned over the police. That’s when I started to feel extremely anxious and scared. I told the original guard I felt uncomfortable and unsafe giving out my personal information, especially when they started asking to go through my phone.

But he cut me off mid-sentence and kept pressuring me. He asked me to open apps like Health and Trainline to “prove my age” and forced me to go through all my recent tickets while he watched. I felt like I couldn’t say no — I was scared, I thought I’d get in even worse trouble if I didn’t comply, especially with police supposedly on the way. I didn’t truly consent to handing over my information, I just panicked.

In the end, he gave me a prosecution notice and made me sign it. I didn’t fully understand what was happening — I signed it because I felt forced, not because I understood what I was agreeing to. He was vague about what would happen next, and now I’m terrified this could lead to a criminal record.

I told him I couldn’t even afford the full price ticket back home to Reading, but he didn’t seem to care. I also found out later that some of these revenue protection staff get commission for prosecutions, which makes this feel even worse.

My dad thinks I was coerced — that they picked on someone who clearly looked scared and didn’t know their rights. I’m starting to think he’s right. I hate that one mistake like this could affect my whole life.

Has anyone been through something similar? Is there anything I can do to avoid getting a criminal record? Any advice or support would really help right now.

Thanks for reading

You didn't make one mistake, you got caught once but had by your own admission not paid the correct fare 15 - 20 times.

You weren't coerced either, the railway employees were just doing their jobs.

The good news is that SWR will most likely make you an offer to settle out of court.

The forum advice is almost always to take that offer and pay the correct fare in future.

 

[AlterEgo]

This time, I was stopped by a guard who asked me my age. When I didn’t give my address straight away

…which is another offence I’m afraid!

, another guard phoned over the police.

Thats not surprising.

But he cut me off mid-sentence and kept pressuring me. He asked me to open apps like Health and Trainline to “prove my age”

What age did you claim to be?

In the end, he gave me a prosecution notice and made me sign it. I didn’t fully understand what was happening — I signed it because I felt forced, not because I understood what I was agreeing to. He was vague about what would happen next, and now I’m terrified this could lead to a criminal record.

Nothing turns on whether you signed anything or not really. You got caught, you were being told to sign the witness statement receipt to ensure your answers were correct.

I told him I couldn’t even afford the full price ticket back home to Reading, but he didn’t seem to care. I also found out later that some of these revenue protection staff get commission for prosecutions

For prosecution reports, no.

, which makes this feel even worse.

My dad thinks I was coerced — that they picked on someone who clearly looked scared and didn’t know their rights.

Which rights do you feel were violated? You have the legal obligation to give the staff your name, address and, if a penalty fare is being considered, your date of birth.

They do not have the right to go through your phone without your consent, but it does appear that you did in fact consent to it - unless they took the phone out of your hands. Regardless, whether they look at your phone or not is not really a material consideration; the train company could still just have audited all your transactions to see all the times you’ve not paid the correct fare.

I’m starting to think he’s right. I hate that one mistake like this could affect my whole life.

It’s not really one mistake, if you’ve been defrauding the railway 15-20 times.

Has anyone been through something similar? Is there anything I can do to avoid getting a criminal record? Any advice or support would really help right now.

Thanks for reading

You should wait for the letter to come. If you are apologetic and accept responsibility for the repeated fare evasion, and commit not to doing it again, they will likely settle out of court for the sum of all the fares evaded plus an admin fee in the low three figures.

 

[phoenix743]

Just to let you know that Revenue protection officers do not receive commission. Commercial Guards/ train managers that sale tickets do.

 

[enyoueffsea]

I’ve only bought child tickets for short, local trips maybe 15–20 times total, saving just a couple of pounds each time.

Were these really short and local trips or were they short fare tickets?

How did you end up in Waterloo from Reading if you only ever purchased a child’s ticket for local trips?