Fake railcard

[heyaweird]

I was using a fake railcard on the train and got caught. He took a picture of every journey I’ve ever taken ( in the past year around 30, trains mostly taken from Bath —> Oxford, and back, and to London. Took my postcode and said I’d receive a letter in the mail. I’ve seen people get fined up to £3000. I’m a 19 year old uni student and can’t afford it. What do I do? I know its only 30 quid and it was a stupid thoughtless decision. Please be nice I’m already stressed. I want to contact them to explain myself beforehand but I don't know where to reach them (as in I don't know whether to contact trainline or the rail company). I've seen some people write mitigation letters.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

I was using a fake railcard on the train and got caught. He took a picture of every journey I’ve ever taken ( in the past year around 30, trains mostly taken from Bath —> Oxford, and back, and to London. Took my postcode and said I’d receive a letter in the mail. I’ve seen people get fined up to £3000. I’m a 19 year old uni student and can’t afford it. What do I do? I know its only 30 quid and it was a stupid thoughtless decision. Please be nice I’m already stressed. I want to contact them to explain myself beforehand but I don't know where to reach them (as in I don't know whether to contact trainline or the rail company). I've seen some people write mitigation letters.

Welcome to the forum. People will be along with expert advice later (it's Saturday night - they may have other things to do right now) but on one point - you need to talk to the rail company: strictly there's nothing wrong with buying train tickets that you are not allowed to use (maybe you bought them for a friend who did have the right documents) but using tickets you aren't entitled to is a problem.

You bought the tickets from Trainline: nothing wrong with that so they won't care. But you used them illegitimately with the railway: they WILL care so it's them you need to talk to.

 

[Haywain]

I’m a 19 year old uni student and can’t afford it.

You shouldn't have used a fake railcard then.

I know its only 30 quid

It would have been only 30 quid if you had done the right thing and bought a railcard. It'll be quite a bit more now.

I want to contact them to explain myself beforehand but I don't know where to reach them (as in I don't know whether to contact trainline or the rail company).

Do nothing (other than buying a proper valid railcard) until you receive a letter. You can't write a letter of mitigation until you know what you are being asked about.

 

[furlong]

Which train company caught you?
Did you ever hold valid railcards? If so, find them and note down the dates when they were valid. Be ready to send them copies (so that they don't charge you for journeys during those dates).

Assuming it was GWR, expect to receive a letter mentioning the threat of prosecution but normally if you cooperate, apologise, and agree to pay back all the money you owe them for the journeys when you didn't hold a valid railcard plus the costs of their investigation, they will settle out-of-court instead of prosecuting.

 

[WesternLancer]

I was using a fake railcard on the train and got caught. He took a picture of every journey I’ve ever taken ( in the past year around 30, trains mostly taken from Bath —> Oxford, and back, and to London. Took my postcode and said I’d receive a letter in the mail. I’ve seen people get fined up to £3000. I’m a 19 year old uni student and can’t afford it. What do I do? I know its only 30 quid and it was a stupid thoughtless decision. Please be nice I’m already stressed. I want to contact them to explain myself beforehand but I don't know where to reach them (as in I don't know whether to contact trainline or the rail company). I've seen some people write mitigation letters.

Do not contact them to try and explain yourself before they contact you. This is very important. Using a forged railcard is a serious offence as it is clearly a pre meditated form of fare evasion. So you must not unintentionally incriminate yourself by trying to write to them now.

Wait for them to contact you. Usually by hard copy post so check your post every day as well as your e mail and spam.

Then head back here for advice on how best to reply.

And / or ask your university student union advice service if they have an arrangement with a solicitor that gives you free help / advice on how to deal with this.

It should be possible to avoid prosecution with help from here but you need to be prepared to pay the full fare for all travel you bought with the forged railcard. This will not be cheap so start saving for that or have an honest conversation with your family about borrowing the money. They will likely want to support you through this.

It will be the rail company that stopped you who will write to you. Trainline will not be involved. But as I say do not contact the railway company until they contact you.

You won’t get fined up to £3000. If they agree not to prosecute you they will want the fares you have evaded paying. You can work out that total yourself and see if it is more r less than £3k. It is the value of what they regard as you have stolen from them that you will need to pay, essentially.

 

[heyaweird]

You shouldn't have used a fake railcard then.

It would have been only 30 quid if you had done the right thing and bought a railcard. It'll be quite a bit more now.

Do nothing (other than buying a proper valid railcard) until you receive a letter. You can't write a letter of mitigation until you know what you are being asked about.

Gee thanks

 

[AlterEgo]

I was using a fake railcard on the train and got caught. He took a picture of every journey I’ve ever taken ( in the past year around 30, trains mostly taken from Bath —> Oxford, and back, and to London.

Regrettably this will be extremely expensive. It is likely you will be charged the Anytime Return fare for each time you defrauded them.

Bath to London is £247.20 return
Bath to Oxford is £162.00 return

This is a classic case of fraud and you're fortunate the railway caught you, as they are unlikely to prosecute for fraud (which is very serious!), and, even more fortunately, won't contact the police (which, in any other industry, would be much more likely to happen, and you would simply be arrested).

You should wait to be contacted by the train company, and see what specific allegation they make and how many, if any, other offences they have detected.

 

[WesternLancer]

I was using a fake railcard on the train and got caught. He took a picture of every journey I’ve ever taken ( in the past year around 30, trains mostly taken from Bath —> Oxford, and back, and to London. Took my postcode and said I’d receive a letter in the mail. I’ve seen people get fined up to £3000. I’m a 19 year old uni student and can’t afford it. What do I do? I know its only 30 quid and it was a stupid thoughtless decision. Please be nice I’m already stressed. I want to contact them to explain myself beforehand but I don't know where to reach them (as in I don't know whether to contact trainline or the rail company). I've seen some people write mitigation letters.

If it was GWR that stopped you and discovered this it is worth you reading their policy which will help you understand what to expect.

https://www.gwr.com/-/media/gwr-sc-website/files/revenue-protection-policy/GWR-Revenue-Protection-Policy-January-2023.pdf

Other companies will have similar policies.

But it would be helpful to know who you are dealing with as the different train companies have differing approaches and some of them contract out their prosecution investigations and they can be more difficult to deal with.

 

[John R]

I’m a 19 year old uni student and can’t afford it. What do I do? I know its only 30 quid

Clearly you could afford 30 quid if you were making all those train journeys. You just chose not to...

As @AlterEgo says, it's normal practice where deliberate fare evasion is discovered to charge the full Anytime Return fare for each journey (more precisely, an Anytime Single fare for each single journey taken). And for longer distance journeys like you've been doing, that's going to be very expensive. Indeed, to that point, you might be best advised to use the services of a solicitor if they offer you an out of court settlement running into the thousands of pounds. That in itself will cost you several hundred pounds, but they may be better placed to negotiate a lower amount than you could yourself. However, until you receive a letter from them, you don't need to do anything.

Finally, if your actions are in anyway typical of the way you conduct yourself and your aspiration post graduation is to work in any sector for which utmost integrity is of paramount importance (think healthcare, law, financial services, accountancy, etc), then you really need to regard this is a (likely to be) costly wake up call.

 

[6Gman]

I was using a fake railcard on the train and got caught.

What do you mean by "a fake railcard"?

 

[Bungle158]

Fraud is normally a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service and potentially a Crown Court appearance, so you will hopefully have escaped that. Now is the time for honesty, humility and also a think about how you are going to raise the substantial sum this is going to cost you. TOCs seldom offer payment plans. The alternative will almost certainly entail the Magistrates Court and a fine plus criminal conviction.