Hello All,
I'd firstly like to thank all the regulars here for their posts on other threads because they have been of great help over the last 6 months, putting my mind at ease about possible outcomes and the right things to write in my response.
In the second week of July, my girlfriend and I were caught without a valid ticket on Chiltern Railways travelling between Marylebone and Moor Street. Five months later, in early December, my girlfriend received the notice of intended prosecution from the Chiltern Railways fraud investigations department and it gave an email address to send correspondence to. She sent a contrite letter to that email address and received a conditional settlement offer letter (pdf attached to email) of just under £300 in response very quickly. She paid straight away and had confirmation from the investigation department that the matter was closed.
Two weeks later, I'd still not received my letter, and so I decided to email the address of the fraud investigations department given in her letter to ask them if my letter had been sent yet, stating that I was worried it had been lost in the post. I was emailed a PDF of a letter that same day and I replied, in a similarly contrite way. The response from Chiltern was identical to that sent to my girlfriend: they responded with a conditional settlement letter (attached to email) of just under £300, which I paid straight away and after a couple of weeks (delay I imagine due to Christmas leave) got confirmation that the case could be considered closed.
However, despite being told her case is closed, my girlfriend has just received a letter from TIL which is a notice of intended prosecution/settlement hybrid letter, and states that Chiltern Railways consider the case suitable for administrative disposal, but offering less than half the original payment she made to Chiltern directly!
What's the best course of action here? She obviously is both frustrated that the case seems not to have been closed properly but also that this offer from TIL would have saved her £150.
It may also be worth noting that next week the 6 month mark since the day it happened passes, and for the sake of reassurance that nothing will go wrong, we'll hold off in addressing any of this until that day comes.
Is there any chance of retrospectively taking the TIL offer instead of the Chiltern one and save £150? If not it is worth complaining and asking for compensation for the stress and inconvenience? How can we make sure that the case is definitely closed and has ben marked as such by both Chiltern and TIL? What are the implications of being (in this case I would assume it is mistakenly) threatened with prosecution incorrectly, for both her and TIL/Chiltern?
Any advice would be gladly received and many thanks in advance.
I'd firstly like to thank all the regulars here for their posts on other threads because they have been of great help over the last 6 months, putting my mind at ease about possible outcomes and the right things to write in my response.
In the second week of July, my girlfriend and I were caught without a valid ticket on Chiltern Railways travelling between Marylebone and Moor Street. Five months later, in early December, my girlfriend received the notice of intended prosecution from the Chiltern Railways fraud investigations department and it gave an email address to send correspondence to. She sent a contrite letter to that email address and received a conditional settlement offer letter (pdf attached to email) of just under £300 in response very quickly. She paid straight away and had confirmation from the investigation department that the matter was closed.
Two weeks later, I'd still not received my letter, and so I decided to email the address of the fraud investigations department given in her letter to ask them if my letter had been sent yet, stating that I was worried it had been lost in the post. I was emailed a PDF of a letter that same day and I replied, in a similarly contrite way. The response from Chiltern was identical to that sent to my girlfriend: they responded with a conditional settlement letter (attached to email) of just under £300, which I paid straight away and after a couple of weeks (delay I imagine due to Christmas leave) got confirmation that the case could be considered closed.
However, despite being told her case is closed, my girlfriend has just received a letter from TIL which is a notice of intended prosecution/settlement hybrid letter, and states that Chiltern Railways consider the case suitable for administrative disposal, but offering less than half the original payment she made to Chiltern directly!
What's the best course of action here? She obviously is both frustrated that the case seems not to have been closed properly but also that this offer from TIL would have saved her £150.
It may also be worth noting that next week the 6 month mark since the day it happened passes, and for the sake of reassurance that nothing will go wrong, we'll hold off in addressing any of this until that day comes.
Is there any chance of retrospectively taking the TIL offer instead of the Chiltern one and save £150? If not it is worth complaining and asking for compensation for the stress and inconvenience? How can we make sure that the case is definitely closed and has ben marked as such by both Chiltern and TIL? What are the implications of being (in this case I would assume it is mistakenly) threatened with prosecution incorrectly, for both her and TIL/Chiltern?
Any advice would be gladly received and many thanks in advance.
