Charged for fare evasion, best way to handle?

[Haywain]

More interesting though, if you accept that the alleged offence happened at Farringdon rather than St. Albans City, is the unresolved question I raised previously of the interplay between NR byelaws and TfL byelaws.

Is this particular use of NR byelaw 18 at "Farringdon <lu>" valid?

Do both sets of byelaws apply simultaneously?
If TfL byelaws apply at Farringdon, then so does TfL's Penalty Fares Scheme, under which Farringdon has a compulsory ticket area.


If a person is inspected on the platform before boarding that particular train and has no ticket, can a TfL PF be validly issued, regardless of the fact they are not intending to catch an Elizabeth Line or London Underground service?

Under the NR byelaws:


Then given that the area is designated a compulsory ticket area under the TfL Penalty Fares Scheme, does that not render byelaw 18 inapplicable meaning byelaw 17 should be used instead (for which no fine can be imposed)?

(I think it was pretty clear that when boarding at a station with any form of CTA, it was intended policy that PFs would be imposed in place of byelaw prosecutions that could not result in a fine.)

None of this is of any help or relevance to the OP.

 

[pedr]

Or I believe pleading guilty but asking for an in person hearing has the same effect without forfeiting the discount for an early guilty plea?

Do you have experience of this working?

My understanding is that a magistrate is entitled to accept an indication of a guilty plea made on a Single Justice Procedure Notice, and therefore convict the defendant, before then reading or hearing mitigation as to the sentence that should be imposed. In theory, at least, it isn't wise to say you will plead guilty to an offence if you do not accept at that point that the court will convict you.

A defendant is entitled to require that the prosecution prove the offence, and is entitled to change a not-guilty plea to a guilty one at a subsequent stage for at least some discount on the sentence, so the difference is only possibly a small amount of money.

 

[z444z]

Do you have experience of this working?

I thought I’d seen it mentioned before, I could be wrong. There was a question mark at the end but maybe wasn’t clear enough that I wasn’t entirely sure!

 

[Swedenorer]

None of this is of any help or relevance to the OP.

Quite right the offence was committed the minute the pax boarded the train without a valid ticket and furthermore travelled as far as St Albans before only buying one when challenged. 18(1) is quite clear on this point. It seems to me that any court would take the view that once the Pax had decided for whatever reason to board a train without a valid ticket they are no longer covered by 17(1) if only because they are no longer there. I fully agree that this interpretation could theoretically result an an unfortunate ticketless Pax being PF'd and Prosecuted for the same journey!

 

[Hadders]

Or I believe pleading guilty but asking for an in person hearing has the same effect without forfeiting the discount for an early guilty plea?

If you plead guilty then that's it, game over - you're guilty.

If you plead guilty and ask for a personal hearning you've still pleaded guilty. The only point of the hearing is to give your mitigation in person to try and lessen the sentence imposed.

 

[guy_2000]

Thanks for the help earlier all, I have not received any response from GTR to the letter I have sent yet. I am going to respond to the court now to buy time. Should I plead guilty with hearing?

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks for the help earlier all, I have not received any response from GTR to the letter I have sent yet. I am going to respond to the court now to buy time. Should I plead guilty with hearing?

No. See post 35.

I think you have to plead ‘not guilty’ and request a hearing in person.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Feb 2026 ==

I take it you sent your letter on 8 Feb. Did you post it hard copy and tracked. If so when did it arrive? Did you track it and obtain proof of delivery?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Feb 2026 ==

When you return your court papers keep a full copy if everything. Send them tracked postage too. Monitor the tracking.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Feb 2026 ==

I've had a look through for other threads where advice has been given about pleading 'not guilty' on the SJPN and requesting an in person hearing in order to secure more time from the railway company to allow you to continue to try to seek an out of court settlement (or at least get a reply from them one way or the other) - these are below in case they are of help

With particular posts to look at

Posts 7 and 10
of this:

https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...-no-possible-prosecution.293454/#post-7509845

Post 25 of this:

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/sjpn-due-tomorrow-help.292881/

where as you will see this approach allows 2 routes
a) more time to try and get them to respond to your request to settle out of court and withdraw the legal action, via letter / call / e-mail
and
b) if (a) does not work the in person hearing provides a chance to seek out the railways prosecutor in court on the day, when you are there, and ask them if they will settle (we have actually seen this work in some previous cases) - if it got to that stage no doubt people here can give advice on how best to approach that.

The other option which we saw a couple of weeks ago was that the passenger concerned, failing to get a reply from GTR like you have failed, and anxious to resolve things, chose to put the matter in the hands of a specialist rail fares solicitor that resolved things very quickly (within a day or two IIRC) - This involved Manak solicitors and the passenger stated they paid c£800 in legal fees to the solicitor for that work.

There are other such solicitors firms you could seek quotes from that get mentioned on this forum, if you want details please ask.
I would not recommend using legal firms that don't have any specialism in rail fares work given the limited time you have available.

 

[guy_2000]

Thank you for the reply WesternLancer and thanks all more generally. Ended up pleading not guilty but today received an email offering out of court settlement. Will pay this asap! Thanks all

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you for the reply WesternLancer and thanks all more generally. Ended up pleading not guilty but today received an email offering out of court settlement. Will pay this asap! Thanks all

Great. That sounds good.

You now need to do a bit of follow up work.eg -
- when you pay that keep proof of payment long term
- you need to get something from GTR after paying that which confirms they have withdrawn the court action. You need that in writing. Maybe whoever e mailed you that offer can send you something
- you then need to send that to the court so the court know the case has been withdrawn.

Needless to say you should be able to rely on all this happening automatically. But you can not rely on that so I would recommend some follow up work to ensure things are confirmed.

 

[guy_2000]

Got you. Thanks

 

[SuspectUsual]

You now need to do a bit of follow up work.eg -
- when you pay that keep proof of payment long term
- you need to get something from GTR after paying that which confirms they have withdrawn the court action. You need that in writing. Maybe whoever e mailed you that offer can send you something
- you then need to send that to the court so the court know the case has been withdrawn.

.....and ask the court to confirm the case has been withdrawn and is no longer live on their system