Digital Fraud team - England

[pittabread]

Hi there, I made a post on Reddit about this and I got sent here, as apparently this is the holy grail of all Rail information.

Long story short, I messed up. I used a rail card with the Trainline app - although I didn't have one - and when the inspector asked for details to fine me, I provided incorrect details.

Over a month later I received a frightening email:

Dear [insert name],

We have recently been handed a file relating to an incident on [X] 2025, when you were approached by staff carrying out their revenue duties, you were asked to show your valid ticket but due to a ticket discrepancy, No Railcard. It has been reported to the Digital Fraud Department for further investigation.

You were issued with a Penalty Fare; this is a separate matter to our investigation and needs to be settled with IRCAS and all details can be found on your Penalty Fare slip.

Further investigations into this matter have been carried out, including a full review of the ticket records. It would appear, at this stage, that this may be a case of fraud.

West Midlands Trains take travel fraud extremely seriously and is committed to prosecuting all cases of fare evasion to the full extent of the law. Travelling on the railway with the intent to avoid paying the full fare is an offence under the Regulation of Railways Act 1889. Such an offence carries a maximum fine of £1,000 and/or three months' imprisonment and, in either case, a criminal record. It must also be considered whether this matter amounts to a much more serious offence under the Fraud Act 2006.

At this stage we would be grateful if you would provide any evidence to support the claim that none of the above legislation has been contravened to prevent further action being contemplated.

Please respond within the next 7 days from the date of this letter to avoid further escalation.

-End-

Now I understand I probably do deserve it, the thing is I've been without a job for a while and my train journeys are mainly to Job/careers fairs, so I mentally shrugged it off, and convinced myself it was o.k.

I'm here now to ask for legal advice. The thing that has me genuinely panicking and stressed out is the DBS thing. I've never been in legal trouble, and a lot of work I apply for ( civil service) asks for DBS checks. So I'm also wondering now if I screwed myself over and will continue without a job for even longer.

Thanks for any replies

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Nov 2025 ==

How do I edit a post. I forgot to remove a piece of information.

 

[MrJeeves]

you were asked to show your valid ticket but due to a ticket discrepancy, No Railcard.

Yet another poorly written email from West Midlands Trains.

Typically, the advice we give is generally to ignore these emails completely since they're attempting to embark on a fishing expedition in the hope you'll admit wrongdoing and they'll extract money out of you.

If you upload a photo of the penalty fare they referenced in their email, we will be able to review it and help you determine if you have a technical route to appeal it. While your appeal is being decided, the countdown for the reduced penalty (£50) is put on pause so you don't lose out in that respect. Or, if you'd rather just have the peace of mind, you can just pay it outright. I expect you probably will have already paid or appealed this, since it was from September, though.

 

[pittabread]

Yet another poorly written email from West Midlands Trains.

Typically, the advice we give is generally to ignore these emails completely since they're attempting to embark on a fishing expedition in the hope you'll admit wrongdoing and they'll extract money out of you.

If you upload a photo of the penalty fare they referenced in their email, we will be able to review it and help you determine if you have a technical route to appeal it. While your appeal is being decided, the countdown for the reduced penalty (£50) is put on pause so you don't lose out in that respect. Or, if you'd rather just have the peace of mind, you can just pay it outright now. I expect you probably will have already paid or appealed this, since it was from September, though.

Thank you for editing the exact date. I greatly appreciate it.

I mean, the panic is they have my name and my email. I don't mind paying the penalty. It's a risk I took and it didn't pay off.

My issue is the email is about fraud, and what that might mean for my employability future. I'm already struggling to find work, throwing this into the mix and I'll lose my mind.

As for the penalty letter I threw it away long ago.

But considering it's addressed to a made up name and a random address should I even bother emailing them asking for a new one?

 

[MrJeeves]

As for the penalty letter I threw it away long ago.

But considering it's addressed to a made up name and a random address should I even bother emailing them asking for a new one?

Did you pay the penalty fare? If not, this is a bigger concern.

You may have provided "random" (false) details, but it's now clear that they know who you are from your Trainline ticket purchases.

Providing false details is, itself, a criminal offense under Section 5(3) of the Regulation of Railways Act 1889, on top of any potential offense committed at the time by travelling on a ticket without owning the Railcard used to discount it.

 

[Trainman40083]

Thank you for editing the exact date. I greatly appreciate it.

I mean, the panic is they have my name and my email. I don't mind paying the penalty. It's a risk I took and it didn't pay off.

My issue is the email is about fraud, and what that might mean for my employability future. I'm already struggling to find work, throwing this into the mix and I'll lose my mind.

As for the penalty letter I threw it away long ago.

But considering it's addressed to a made up name and a random address should I even bother emailing them asking for a new one?

But is the made up name and random address, one that you gave them? You did say you gave incorrect details. I imagine your correct details may well be on Trainline.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you for editing the exact date. I greatly appreciate it.

I mean, the panic is they have my name and my email. I don't mind paying the penalty. It's a risk I took and it didn't pay off.

My issue is the email is about fraud, and what that might mean for my employability future. I'm already struggling to find work, throwing this into the mix and I'll lose my mind.

As for the penalty letter I threw it away long ago.

But considering it's addressed to a made up name and a random address should I even bother emailing them asking for a new one?

I think we might need to know a bit more about what has happened n the past (eg with the Penalty Fare) when that was etc, if you paid it, and maybe some idea of how much travel in general you have been doing with a Railcard discount on tickets when you don't have the Railcard, to give you best advice or to help you weigh up the options

But it might be worth you have a read of these recent threads to see some of the responses given there about responding or not to these types of e-mails / letters, what you have to weigh up and what might happen if you do or do not reply

Travel Irregularity

Hi to whoever is reading this I received a email recently from fraud investigations greater anglia stating that they have been led to believe that I am potentially not paying full fares and that there is a couple of incorrectly purchased tickets alongside they have also said in a attached letter...

www.railforums.co.uk

There are no doubt other threads on the forum that are similar with West Mids Trains too if you look for them.

Ultimately they are trying to find a way to get you to pay fares they think you have evaded paying correctly. But that isn't paying another of the £50 / £100 Pnealty Fare sums you have paid before and see on the psoters. Depending on how may fares your activity has involved (and you ,ay be wise not to state that here on a public forum) this can of course add up to a lot of money - as they may well not take account of the sum you did already pay.

One thing you definitely do need to do is stop what you have been doing - as next time you are caught red handed the Inspector will be able to see that you have been flagged as having been issued a Penalty Fare before and next time they will report you for court action. As they would have caught you in the act then they would certainly be able to secure a guilty verdict if they wished to prosecute - so that would certainly flag on any DBS checks so if job hunting that isn't going to be something you want to add to the mix as you appreciate.

 

[pittabread]

But is the made up name and random address, one that you gave them? You did say you gave incorrect details. I imagine your correct details may well be on Trainline.

Yes I imagine maybe something got flagged, so they escalated something internally and took the name from Payment details and email from the Trainline ticket.

 

[Trainman40083]

Yes I imagine maybe something got flagged, so they escalated something internally and took the name from Payment details and email from the Trainline ticket.

One of the dangers when people leave a digital footprint, I guess

 

[pittabread]

I think we might need to know a bit more about what has happened n the past (eg with the Penalty Fare) when that was etc, if you paid it, and maybe some idea of how much travel in general you have been doing with a Railcard discount on tickets when you don't have the Railcard, to give you best advice or to help you weigh up the options

But it might be worth you have a read of these recent threads to see some of the responses given there about responding or not to these types of e-mails / letters, what you have to weigh up and what might happen if you do or do not reply

Travel Irregularity

Hi to whoever is reading this I received a email recently from fraud investigations greater anglia stating that they have been led to believe that I am potentially not paying full fares and that there is a couple of incorrectly purchased tickets alongside they have also said in a attached letter...

www.railforums.co.uk

There are no doubt other threads on the forum that are similar with West Mids Trains too if you look for them.

Ultimately they are trying to find a way to get you to pay fares they think you have evaded paying correctly. But that isn't paying another of the £50 / £100 Pnealty Fare sums you have paid before and see on the psoters. Depending on how may fares your activity has involved (and you ,ay be wise not to state that here on a public forum) this can of course add up to a lot of money - as they may well not take account of the sum you did already pay.

One thing you definitely do need to do is stop what you have been doing - as next time you are caught red handed the Inspector will be able to see that you have been flagged as having been issued a Penalty Fare before and next time they will report you for court action. As they would have caught you in the act then they would certainly be able to secure a guilty verdict if they wished to prosecute - so that would certainly flag on any DBS checks so if job hunting that isn't going to be something you want to add to the mix as you appreciate.

I don't catch the train too frequently, but I do catch it once every two weeks or so. I always use the railcard option on the app. This theoretically goes back many years. Even to pre-covid when I was studying.

Although in this case I have the slight feeling this flagged because I used that address last time I got caught and that was about 2 years ago. So I'm guessing there was already a flag, and I repeated it again ( different random name, but same address) this year.

Since the incident a couple of months ago ( which I forgot about till now ) I have purchased two tickets using the same process.

Of course I'll be stopping cold turkey right now, and I've also just purchased a damn Railcard today.

 

[Haywain]

One of the dangers when people leave a digital footprint, I guess

One of the dangers of thinking lying is acceptable, more like.

 

[6Gman]

I don't catch the train too frequently, but I do catch it once every two weeks or so. I always use the railcard option on the app. This theoretically goes back many years. Even to pre-covid when I was studying.

Although in this case I have the slight feeling this flagged because I used that address last time I got caught and that was about 2 years ago. So I'm guessing there was already a flag, and I repeated it again ( different random name, but same address) this year.

Since the incident a couple of months ago ( which I forgot about till now ) I have purchased two tickets using the same process.

Of course I'll be stopping cold turkey right now, and I've also just purchased a damn Railcard today.

Did you pay the penalty fare issued?

 

[pittabread]

Did you pay the penalty fare issued?

No. I gave incorrect information, and thought that was the end of that.

 

[WesternLancer]

No. I gave incorrect information, and thought that was the end of that.

So ref an unpaid Penalty Fare - what we see on here is that non payment eventually results in action to pursue that via court action - by which time the sum that could have been resolved for £50 has increased considerably with debt collection costs etc added on. That may of may not have happened yet - and hard to know if the court action will be taken against the false details you gave. If you have thrown away the details of the Penalty Fare it's a lot more difficult for you to put a stop to that escalation by actually paying it to close that down (is this what you mean by a 'Penalty Letter'? - Penalty Fares do not usually come as letters, they are usually a small slip issued by the staff member on the train on the day, or at a station) and the deadline for that may have elapsed anyway. After the 21 day discount period ends I'm not sure how long you then get to pay the £100 before it escalates in the direction of court action.

It's possibly that non payment also drew further attention to you which has resulted in the railway company investigating your purchase records and found things to be suspicious of over a history of deliberate or suspected fare evasion (or it may be co-incidence in that they are running IT checks on every Penalty Fare case which is not impossible - WM trains seem to do a lot of data trawling when they have info that they believe points towards suspicious behaviour) - and they presumably know your real details from that investigation.

You probably need a plan now to co-operate with them over this to avoid prosecution / court action involved in that investigation, never mind any court action associated with the unpaid Penalty Fare.

This seems like a mess I'm afraid. I guess you have got a bit shorter than 7 days to decide what to do it.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

No. I gave incorrect information, and thought that was the end of that.

Do you remember the incorrect details that you gave to the Revenue Manager?

If so, you could email the digital fraud team and explain the situation regarding the penalty fare ONLY and sincerely apologise, not realising the gravity of your actions. They may allow you to pay the £100+fare owed rather than go through the court. This would likely be the cheapest and quickest option.

How you wish to deal with the long term fare evasions is up to you, but being honest and cooperative with Train Companies tends to deliver expensive but short term pain, ignoring and allowing to go through the courts does not make these things disappear.

 

[pittabread]

So ref an unpaid Penalty Fare - what we see on here is that non payment eventually results in action to pursue that via court action - by which time the sum that could have been resolved for £50 has increased considerably with debt collection costs etc added on. That may of may not have happened yet - and hard to know if the court action will be taken against the false details you gave. If you have thrown away the details of the Penalty Fare it's a lot more difficult for you to put a stop to that escalation by actually paying it to close that down (is this what you mean by a 'Penalty Letter'? - Penalty Fares do not usually come as letters, they are usually a small slip issued by the staff member on the train on the day, or at a station) and the deadline for that may have elapsed anyway. After the 21 day discount period ends I'm not sure how long you then get to pay the £100 before it escalates in the direction of court action.

It's possibly that non payment also drew further attention to you which has resulted in the railway company investigating your purchase records and found things to be suspicious of over a history of deliberate or suspected fare evasion (or it may be co-incidence in that they are running IT checks on every Penalty Fare case which is not impossible - WM trains seem to do a lot of data trawling when they have info that they believe points towards suspicious behaviour) - and they presumably know your real details from that investigation.

You probably need a plan now to co-operate with them over this to avoid prosecution / court action involved in that investigation, never mind any court action associated with the unpaid Penalty Fare.

This seems like a mess I'm afraid. I guess you have got a bit shorter than 7 days to decide what to do it.

Yep. It's a mess. That's why I posted here, to hopefully get some advice on what the most prudent next step is, considering the legal implication of fraud and what not.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Nov 2025 ==

Do you remember the incorrect details that you gave to the Revenue Manager?

If so, you could email the digital fraud team and explain the situation regarding the penalty fare ONLY and sincerely apologise, not realising the gravity of your actions. They may allow you to pay the £100+fare owed rather than go through the court. This would likely be the cheapest and quickest option.

How you wish to deal with the long term fare evasions is up to you, but being honest and cooperative with Train Companies tends to deliver expensive but short term pain, ignoring and allowing to go through the courts does not make these things disappear.

I remember some of the details. The part of the email that gives me a pause is ,

"You were issued with a Penalty Fare; this is a separate matter to our investigation and needs to be settled with IRCAS and all details can be found on your Penalty Fare slip.".

From my understanding the email I'm receiving is about something greater than the penalty fare. I'm scared of I reply I'll open a legal Pandora's box

 

[WesternLancer]

Could there be similarities with this recent thread. Note responses being given.

Advice on short fare prosecution letter:

Essentially, an individual I know is in this situation and is seeking advice. Any advice or any similar cases or likely outcomes are appreciated. An individual has been commuting by train for roughly two years. They consistently purchased a cheaper ticket that covered only the final stops of...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Could there be similarities with this recent thread. Note responses being given.

Advice on short fare prosecution letter:

Essentially, an individual I know is in this situation and is seeking advice. Any advice or any similar cases or likely outcomes are appreciated. An individual has been commuting by train for roughly two years. They consistently purchased a cheaper ticket that covered only the final stops of...

www.railforums.co.uk

There's likely to be similarities - if nothing else, from the number we have seen in the last 24 hours it seems that WMR/LNWR sent out a batch of their emails yesterday.

 

[WesternLancer]

There's likely to be similarities - if nothing else, from the number we have seen in the last 24 hours it seems that WMR/LNWR sent out a batch of their emails yesterday.

Yes. I’d thought that too.

 

[pittabread]

Could there be similarities with this recent thread. Note responses being given.

Advice on short fare prosecution letter:

Essentially, an individual I know is in this situation and is seeking advice. Any advice or any similar cases or likely outcomes are appreciated. An individual has been commuting by train for roughly two years. They consistently purchased a cheaper ticket that covered only the final stops of...

www.railforums.co.uk

Yes, that is an interesting thread. Almost my same exact scenario.

My only issue now is the lying aspect and if it'll cause an escalation.

Well the fact it seems they mass sent these emails has calmed me down a bit.

 

[WesternLancer]

Yes, that is an interesting thread. Almost my same exact scenario.

My only issue now is the lying aspect and if it'll cause an escalation.

Well the fact it seems they mass sent these emails has calmed me down a bit.

Yes, about 4 or 5 cases appeared on the forum recently so they must have sent a batch of stuff out from a data trawl perhaps.

One of the things to remember is that when they catch people red handed they have what they need to bring a slam dunk prosecution - so whatever you deicide to do now about this e-mail if they catch you fare evading red handed in future they will likely join the dots and the risk of prosecution is considerable

And the non paid Penalty Fare seems to me to remain a problem you also need to think about how to resolve because if they have tracked that to you and it remains unpaid court action will, I fear, follow on in respect of that. Well, I can't see why it wouldn't if they can link it up with you which they seem to have already done.

You could probably contact IRCAS separately and direct about that if you wanted to seek to pay. We have IRCAS contact details if you need them. You ay be able to ring and ask to pay it if they can trace it - that might close that matter down.

 

[pittabread]

Yes, about 4 or 5 cases appeared on the forum recently so they must have sent a batch of stuff out from a data trawl perhaps.

One of the things to remember is that when they catch people red handed they have what they need to bring a slam dunk prosecution - so whatever you deicide to do now about this e-mail if they catch you fare evading red handed in future they will likely join the dots and the risk of prosecution is considerable

And the non paid Penalty Fare seems to me to remain a problem you also need to think about how to resolve because if they have tracked that to you and it remains unpaid court action will, I fear, follow on in respect of that. Well, I can't see why it wouldn't if they can link it up with you which they seem to have already done.

You could probably contact IRCAS separately and direct about that if you wanted to seek to pay. We have IRCAS contact details if you need them. You ay be able to ring and ask to pay it if they can trace it - that might close that matter down.

Yes I think I'll contact the IRCAS about that. Close down that chapter asap.

 

[WesternLancer]

Yes I think I'll contact the IRCAS about that. Close down that chapter asap.

post #1 of this has a phone number and e-mail (reports that it's a premium rate number) in an upload

I found the letter from IRCAS 5 months later and now website won’t take payment

I need help. I travelled with an invalid ticket at the end of May and was cautioned by the revenue protection team. I was told I should expect a letter in the next few weeks. I started waiting for the letter and expected it to arrive in mid-June, but nothing came, to my knowledge. I carried on...

www.railforums.co.uk

I think postal address is

ITAL
Regus Building 1000
Lakeside North Harbour
Western Road
Portsmouth
PO6 3EZ

I'm not sure what the difference between ITAL and IRCAS is -

This says IRCAS is a trading name of ITAL

About IRCAS | IRCAS

Customer focused collections.

www.ircas.co.uk

 

[pittabread]

post #1 of this has a phone number and e-mail (reports that it's a premium rate number) in an upload

I found the letter from IRCAS 5 months later and now website won’t take payment

I need help. I travelled with an invalid ticket at the end of May and was cautioned by the revenue protection team. I was told I should expect a letter in the next few weeks. I started waiting for the letter and expected it to arrive in mid-June, but nothing came, to my knowledge. I carried on...

www.railforums.co.uk

I think postal address is

ITAL
Regus Building 1000
Lakeside North Harbour
Western Road
Portsmouth
PO6 3EZ

I'm not sure what the difference between ITAL and IRCAS is -

This says IRCAS is a trading name of ITAL

About IRCAS | IRCAS

Customer focused collections.

www.ircas.co.uk

I just need to first figure out if this will incriminate me or something?

Bare in mind I used the same address for the same thing about 2 years ago.

 

[WesternLancer]

I just need to first figure out if this will incriminate me or something?

Bare in mind I used the same address for the same thing about 2 years ago.

well an unpaid Penalty Fare that can be linked back to you will end up in court anyway, eventually - I would assume

and presumably this one can be linked back to you as you have a letter mentioning a Penalty Fare (presumably this PF)

and they strongly suspect other evasion (but may not be able to prove it) - so I can't see how paying this Penalty Fare will incriminate you any more than getting the Penalty Fare in the first place

Others here may have views.

 

[pittabread]

well an unpaid Penalty Fare that can be linked back to you will end up in court anyway, eventually - I would assume

and presumably this one can be linked back to you as you have a letter mentioning a Penalty Fare (presumably this PF)

and they strongly suspect other evasion (but may not be able to prove it) - so I can't see how paying this Penalty Fare will incriminate you any more than getting the Penalty Fare in the first place

Others here may have views.

It will end up in court eventually?

I thought these things get dropped after a set amount of time?

I'm just worried I'll call up and they'll mention the two year old fine and I'll get dragged into more trouble

 

[WesternLancer]

It will end up in court eventually?

I thought these things get dropped after a set amount of time?

I'm just worried I'll call up and they'll mention the two year old fine and I'll get dragged into more trouble

If people don't pay Penalty Fares the system wouldn't work if they just got dropped if you ignored them - no one would ever pay them! Why do you think that would happen....

If the Penalty Fare is not paid, form what we see on here, a reminder will be sent to the address given (so possibly not your address if you gave false details), if then not paid it will get escalated to court, by which time costs will have been added.

The court will issue a fine of some sort. If that is not paid then it will go into the hands of court bailiffs. Court bailiffs are very good at eventually finding people even when they give false addresses. I think they can do attachment of earnings on wages or social security benefits too. By which time a lot more costs will have been added to the sum of the original PF.

I think for the occasional ones I've seen on here someone who could have sorted the Penalty Fare for £50 ends up owing £500+ to sort it out, pay bailiffs etc.

I haven't really got time to trawl through the forum looking for such a case but have certainly seen them in the past as a result of people 'burying their heads in the sand' and thinking a Penalty Fare can be ignored. Having given a false name and address there is a chance they will not catch up with you - but that seems pretty slim to me given they have already found you for something else and e-mailed you...

Hopefully if I have this wrong or any aspects of it then others will correct me.

 

[Trainman40083]

If people don't pay Penalty Fares the system wouldn't work if they just got dropped if you ignored them - no one would ever pay them! Why do you think that would happen....

If the Penalty Fare is not paid, form what we see on here, a reminder will be sent to the address given, if then not paid it will get escalated to court, by which time costs will have been added.

The court will issue a fine of some sort. If that is not paid then it will go into the hands of court bailiffs. Court bailiffs are very good at eventually finding people. I think they can do attachment of earnings on wages or social security benefits too. By which time a lot more costs will have been added

I think for the occasions ones I've seen on here someone who could have sorted the Penalty Fare for £50 ends up owing £500+ to sort it.

Even more if a solicitor gets involved.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

It will end up in court eventually?

I thought these things get dropped after a set amount of time?

I'm just worried I'll call up and they'll mention the two year old fine and I'll get dragged into more trouble

With WMT in particular - any Penalty Fare that isn't paid in time, or investigated case not responded to ALWAYS gets put forward for court action. That is what the prosecution team's process and procedures state they are to do. It will not just disappear.

The issue you have is that sorting it out prior to going to court will prove challenging. They have clearly already linked it back to yourself through address or other means, the future for you if you don't sort it will be bailiffs at your door chasing unpaid court sums.

 

[pittabread]

With WMT in particular - any Penalty Fare that isn't paid in time, or investigated case not responded to ALWAYS gets put forward for court action. That is what the prosecution team's process and procedures state they are to do. It will not just disappear.

The issue you have is that sorting it out prior to going to court will prove challenging. They have clearly already linked it back to yourself through address or other means, the future for you if you don't sort it will be bailiffs at your door chasing unpaid court sums.

Well that sucks. Guess I'm going to be calling the IRCAS soon.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how I should approach the call? I'm not sure what name the fine is under.

 

[AlterEgo]

The TOC have no evidence of who was stopped for the penalty fare. They cannot prosecute for that either. We have never seen a case of it on the forum- false details, traveller not IDd, purchaser taken to court. Never.

OP, when exactly were you penalty fared?