Child ticket

[rhkabfk1254]

Fare evasion

Hi, I made a stupid mistake - which I now realise was not a mistake but actually fraud - a few weeks ago where I bought a child ticket instead of an adult because I’ve done it before a few times and haven’t got caught. I got caught this time and I lied about it hoping to bluff my way out and for 5 minutes I said I was a child when I am not under 15. I then eventually had to own up because I had another time where I (honest mistake) got a 16-17 savers thing in the first year and it timed out before I remembered to pay for it again. This previous mistake is what caught me and I eventually said ok yes I’m not a child but I’m so so sorry I just didn’t know what to do when they asked me how old I was so I lied. I get that was super dumb and I should have paid the whole price.
Then when they were taking my details they were talking about like the prosecution office and stuff and I really don’t understand. I haven’t gotten a letter or an email yet from them but I know I will have to pay. The guy also read me my rights to me which scared me.

They asked me why and I said I don’t have enough money as I am a uni student and he wrote that down.

I understand that I will likely have to pay about 200 pounds at least if I pay within the 2 weeks but I would like to know if it will be any worse than this so if anyone has any information like a letter asking me to go to court, please let me know.

Another question: this happened about 2.5 weeks ago and I have not had any letters or emails about this, is that a bad sign?
Also will this give me a criminal record and intervene with DBS checks?

I did not understand that it was this serious.

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

Which train company are you dealing with? We need to know this to be able to give the correct advice. Also, how old are you?

 

[rhkabfk1254]

Welcome to the forum!

Which train company are you dealing with? We need to know this to be able to give the correct advice. Also, how old are you?

I was 5 days turned 19 when this happened and I think it was south western. The whole journey was about 30 minutes

 

[Hadders]

Thanks for confirming. The main difference is knowing whether you're dealing with Transport for London or a National Rail train company. SWR is a National Rail train company.

Using a child ticket when you are not a child is a criminal offence and SWR are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they want to. The good news is they will normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with their investigation and who haven't come to their attention before.

What happens next is they will write to you saying that they have received a report but asking for your version of events before they decide how to proceed. It is important that you reply to this letter promptly - did you give them your correct address and (noting that you are a student) will you be able to receive post at this address outside of term time? Letters can take several weeks (often months) to arrive - they have a big backlog at the moment.

When the letter arrives, post a redacted copy of it in this thread along with your draft reply and forum members will proof read it for you. The sort of things to include in your reply are:

- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the train company's administrative costs in dealing with the matter

If you are offered an out of court settlement expect to have to pay for the outstanding fare at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the child rate ticket you did purchase. In addition they will charge an admin fee, typically £150. SWR will search your online ticket purchasing history and will want to factor in the cost of the settlement any child rate tickets you've purchased since you turned 16, so this could end up costing a significant sum, depending on how often you've used the train with child tickets over the last 3 years.

Settlements have to be paid in full within a few days of being offered, payment in installments isn't allowed (although we have had reports of SWR referring people to debt management companies before for a fee of £35) so think about how you will raise the sort of money required at short notice. Paying an out of court settlement might feel like paying a fine but technically it isn't a fine - only a court can impose a fine as a punishment upon conviction (i.e. you plead guilty or are found guilty after a trial). You won't have a criminal record as a result of paying an out of court settlement.

 

[rhkabfk1254]

Thanks for confirming. The main difference is knowing whether you're dealing with Transport for London or a National Rail train company. SWR is a National Rail train company.

Using a child ticket when you are not a child is a criminal offence and SWR are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they want to. The good news is they will normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with their investigation and who haven't come to their attention before.

What happens next is they will write to you saying that they have received a report but asking for your version of events before they decide how to proceed. It is important that you reply to this letter promptly - did you give them your correct address and (noting that you are a student) will you be able to receive post at this address outside of term time? Letters can take several weeks (often months) to arrive - they have a big backlog at the moment.

When the letter arrives, post a redacted copy of it in this thread along with your draft reply and forum members will proof read it for you. The sort of things to include in your reply are:

- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the train company's administrative costs in dealing with the matter

If you are offered an out of court settlement expect to have to pay for the outstanding fare at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the child rate ticket you did purchase. In addition they will charge an admin fee, typically £150. SWR will search your online ticket purchasing history and will want to factor in the cost of the settlement any child rate tickets you've purchased since you turned 16, so this could end up costing a significant sum, depending on how often you've used the train with child tickets over the last 3 years.

Settlements have to be paid in full within a few days of being offered, payment in installments isn't allowed (although we have had reports of SWR referring people to debt management companies before for a fee of £35) so think about how you will raise the sort of money required at short notice. Paying an out of court settlement might feel like paying a fine but technically it isn't a fine - only a court can impose a fine as a punishment upon conviction (i.e. you plead guilty or are found guilty after a trial). You won't have a criminal record as a result of paying an out of court settlement.

Thank you very much. Also how do they check? Do they use credit card to check or is it like the Trainline app? I know not to delete anything because that will make me look suspicious.

 

[Hadders]

Thank you very much. Also how do they check? Do they use credit card to check or is it like the Trainline app? I know not to delete anything because that will make me look suspicious.

They will check with Trainline.

Deleting your account doesn’t make the data disappear, Trainline will still have visibility of your purchase history but you won’t!

 

[rhkabfk1254]

They will check with Trainline.

Deleting your account doesn’t make the data disappear, Trainline will still have visibility of your purchase history but you won’t!

Thank you, sorry I have one more question. Since is did in fact own up to this fraud, whilst saying I’m very very sorry and gave a very generic reason of I do not have enough money, are they more likely to want me to pay more since I did tell them that it was not a mistake? I am worried that this means the price will go very high.

When i get my letter i will post it here and write a potential response with the things you have told me to say. Thank you for all of this.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you, sorry I have one more question. Since is did in fact own up to this fraud, whilst saying I’m very very sorry and gave a very generic reason of I do not have enough money, are they more likely to want me to pay more since I did tell them that it was not a mistake? I am worried that this means the price will go very high.

When i get my letter i will post it here and write a potential response with the things you have told me to say. Thank you for all of this.

They are not going to make up a sum to charge you. They will want the sum of all the fares they believe you have evaded as mentioned above. They will see this as what you owe them. You can calculate this yourself if you look up all the travel you have taken at the child rate.

The fare type they charge is explained above (anytime fares not off peak) and no credit is given for the child fares you bought as you were not entitled to travel with child tickets.

You need to work out what this sum might be and make a plan to save those funds up or borrow them from family.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

They are not going to make up a sum to charge you. They will want the sum of all the fares they believe you have evaded as mentioned above. They will see this as what you owe them. You can calculate this yourself if you look up all the travel you have taken at the child rate.

The fare type they charge is explained above (anytime fares not off peak) and no credit is given for the child fares you bought as you were not entitled to travel with child tickets.

You need to work out what this sum might be and make a plan to save those funds up or borrow them from family.

For completeness (and as explained in post #4 above) as well as the train fares owed, you will also have to pay the cost of the investigation which will be something like £150.

 

[Hadders]

Thank you, sorry I have one more question. Since is did in fact own up to this fraud, whilst saying I’m very very sorry and gave a very generic reason of I do not have enough money, are they more likely to want me to pay more since I did tell them that it was not a mistake? I am worried that this means the price will go very high.

When i get my letter i will post it here and write a potential response with the things you have told me to say. Thank you for all of this.

As explainjed above, they will not charge you more but meerly seek payment for the journeys you made using invalid tickets. The sting in the tail is they will charge probably you the full Anytime Single fare for these journeys with no credit given for the invalid child tickets you did purchase.

You should be able to get an idea of the sum involved by checking your purchase history in your Trainline account. You might have to do this on the website version rather than the app.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you, sorry I have one more question. Since is did in fact own up to this fraud, whilst saying I’m very very sorry and gave a very generic reason of I do not have enough money, are they more likely to want me to pay more since I did tell them that it was not a mistake? I am worried that this means the price will go very high.

When i get my letter i will post it here and write a potential response with the things you have told me to say. Thank you for all of this.

Further to previous advice - part of what you need to do is convince them you have learned your lesson and changed your ways when you reply to the letter they will send you - a practical way to do that is to buy a Railcard now so you get a legitimate reduction on train fares rather than trying to cheat them.

This is something you can then say when you write to them is something you have done in practice to reduce the costs of your fares going forwards. If you buy this now it means you can show them something you actually did promptly to address this. See the cost of the railcard as an investment in avoiding prosecution as well as a way to reduce your ticket prices over the year ahead.

see this - I would imagine the 16-25 railcard is what you would qualify for

National Rail Railcards | National Rail

Get 1/3 off your train tickets with a Railcard. From children to seniors, there is a Railcard to suit everyone. Plus information on regional railcards and other forms of concessionary travel

www.nationalrail.co.uk

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 May 2025 ==

Thank you, sorry I have one more question. Since is did in fact own up to this fraud, whilst saying I’m very very sorry and gave a very generic reason of I do not have enough money, are they more likely to want me to pay more since I did tell them that it was not a mistake? I am worried that this means the price will go very high.

When i get my letter i will post it here and write a potential response with the things you have told me to say. Thank you for all of this.

so just to add to this, it's not really that the 'price will go up' based on what you said, it would be if they decided to punish you more severely because this was deliberate evasion - and the only real option they have to do that would be to send it to court and prosecute you (where you would get a fine from the court based on your income - or notional income as a student - along with court costs and also a criminal record).

However, for people who engage with them and co-operate in the way you are being advised here the vast majority of cases don't get escalated to court and can be resolved out of court - even where people have deliberately evaded fares, so you have every prospect of being able to achieve this outcome.

The main exception to this is people who are caught fare evading with Transport for London. they generally have a different policy which is to prosecute almost everyone in court. This is why Hadders asked which rail operator caught you.

Hope these additional explanations help you understand how thigs are likely to play out and how you can get the best (or least worst) outcome.

Also, if you are a student and in financial difficulties you may be able to see if there is help available from your uni or college hardship fund. That would not be to help pay for this specifically but more generally with your finances.

 

[rhkabfk1254]

Further to previous advice - part of what you need to do is convince them you have learned your lesson and changed your ways when you reply to the letter they will send you - a practical way to do that is to buy a Railcard now so you get a legitimate reduction on train fares rather than trying to cheat them.

This is something you can then say when you write to them is something you have done in practice to reduce the costs of your fares going forwards. If you buy this now it means you can show them something you actually did promptly to address this. See the cost of the railcard as an investment in avoiding prosecution as well as a way to reduce your ticket prices over the year ahead.

see this - I would imagine the 16-25 railcard is what you would qualify for

National Rail Railcards | National Rail

Get 1/3 off your train tickets with a Railcard. From children to seniors, there is a Railcard to suit everyone. Plus information on regional railcards and other forms of concessionary travel

www.nationalrail.co.uk

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 May 2025 ==


so just to add to this, it's not really that the 'price will go up' based on what you said, it would be if they decided to punish you more severely because this was deliberate evasion - and the only real option they have to do that would be to send it to court and prosecute you (where you would get a fine from the court based on your income - or notional income as a student - along with court costs and also a criminal record).

However, for people who engage with them and co-operate in the way you are being advised here the vast majority of cases don't get escalated to court and can be resolved out of court - even where people have deliberately evaded fares, so you have every prospect of being able to achieve this outcome.

The main exception to this is people who are caught fare evading with Transport for London. they generally have a different policy which is to prosecute almost everyone in court. This is why Hadders asked which rail operator caught you.

Hope these additional explanations help you understand how thigs are likely to play out and how you can get the best (or least worst) outcome.

Also, if you are a student and in financial difficulties you may be able to see if there is help available from your uni or college hardship fund. That would not be to help pay for this specifically but more generally with your finances.

Thank you very much