Fare evasion using freedom pass

[stressedou101]

Hi all,

Seeking advise for my mother who had been using her moms (my grandmas) freedom pass to travel to and from work on multiple occasions and has been caught by the inspector in plain clothes as soon as he touched in on her way to work.

We have received the initial letter asking to provide statement, which we did and stated that she apologises and had used it by accident as she just put her hand in the pocket and traveled earlier with her mother to hospital where they found out some bad news.

Regardless, she has been deliberately evading fares to save money for few weeks before being caught. We have now received a letter stating she is required to attend magistrates court at lavender hill on September and asked to fill out forms (pleading guilty or not) and including statement from the inspector as well as travel patterns taken from her moms freedom pass that they had confiscated.

She suffers from anxiety and depression for over five years and i am attempting to get all the records from gp to present as somewhat mitigating situation (as suggested via phone by solicitors). Our main concern is not to receive a conviction and i am just trying to understand if its worth getting legal assistance on this as its obviously not 100% that she can get away either just a warning.

She is extremely concerned and given her sensitive situation with mental health this is already causing lapsing since the time she got caught she had to increase/change some of her day to day antidepressants that shes been on for 5 years. She has been suicidal and shows signs of intention to harm herself when facing difficult situations (bad news about her mothers health, loss in the family, problems at work etc - anything slightly serious can cause her to get thoughts of ending her life including obviously being taken to court)

She works as catering assistant in a hospital and this could damage her ability to work let alone the affect on her mental health.

I just want to know some advise from you guys as i tried reading other stories but nothing that could potentially be applied to her case. How mitigating the mental health condition can be in this case? Or any sort of advise if appreciated.

Regardless of difficult financial situation if it means we have to get lawyers involved to increase our chances of not getting a conviction we will find a way to cover their costs (everyone I enquired with gave flat out fees of £1080 including VAT)

I look forward to all insights

 

[Haywain]

Our main concern is not to receive a conviction and i am just trying to understand if its worth getting legal assistance on this as its obviously not 100% that she can get away either just a warning.

If a summons has been issued it is almost certainly too late for that. You are aware of the going rate for getting solicitors involved, and there is no guarantee of success.

We have now received a letter stating she is required to attend magistrates court at lavender hill

It would be extremely rare for TfL not to send out a letter ahead of a summons, so what happened when that letter was sent?

 

[AlterEgo]

We have received the initial letter asking to provide statement, which we did and stated that she apologises and had used it by accident as she just put her hand in the pocket and traveled earlier with her mother to hospital where they found out some bad news.

Regardless, she has been deliberately evading fares to save money for few weeks before being caught.

So, in her statement, which can be used as evidence, she wrote a lie. Not a great start!

We have now received a letter stating she is required to attend magistrates court at lavender hill on September and asked to fill out forms (pleading guilty or not) and including statement from the inspector as well as travel patterns taken from her moms freedom pass that they had confiscated.

She suffers from anxiety and depression for over five years and i am attempting to get all the records from gp to present as somewhat mitigating situation (as suggested via phone by solicitors). Our main concern is not to receive a conviction and i am just trying to understand if its worth getting legal assistance on this as its obviously not 100% that she can get away either just a warning.

If you show us the paperwork we can see what has happened, but it looks like she has been charged with one offence and had all the other fare evasion offences set to be taken into consideration. TfL have decided to prosecute, and there is very little at this stage that can be done unless you employ a solicitor. Even then, avoiding a conviction at this stage when the charge has already been laid - particularly when, having been given the opportunity to calmly and dispassionately write mitigation, she told what is quite obviously a lie - is extremely, perhaps even vanishingly rare.

If you're serious about this, you need to engage a solicitor immediately, but be under no illusions they're not miracle workers.

Whichever, it's going to cost a lot of money (going to court might be *cheaper*!) - this is unavoidable at this point.

 

[stressedou101]

If a summons has been issued it is almost certainly too late for that. You are aware of the going rate for getting solicitors involved, and there is no guarantee of success.

It would be extremely rare for TfL not to send out a letter ahead of a summons, so what happened when that letter was sent?

They requested more information in the previous letter where we have stated she unintentionally used the freedom pass and stated circumstances where earlier in the day she had medical appointment with her mom who hander her over her valuables including freedom pass and during appointment her mum was diagnosed with stroke and she used it by mistake under stress (this is true to what happened, however she had previously used freedom pass being fully aware and not hiding the fact) About 6weeks later we received summoning to court

 

[John R]

Just to pick up on one point, I am not sure that a relatively minor offence for fare evasion would be consequential for someone working in an ancillary role in the health service. Obviously if she were on the medical side then it would be different, but just being in catering probably not (unless she handles money as part of her role maybe?) Though if convicted she would check whether she needs to disclose it, and do so if required.

 

[stressedou101]

So, in her statement, which can be used as evidence, she wrote a lie. Not a great start!



If you show us the paperwork we can see what has happened, but it looks like she has been charged with one offence and had all the other fare evasion offences set to be taken into consideration. TfL have decided to prosecute, and there is very little at this stage that can be done unless you employ a solicitor. Even then, avoiding a conviction at this stage when the charge has already been laid - particularly when, having been given the opportunity to calmly and dispassionately write mitigation, she told what is quite obviously a lie - is extremely, perhaps even vanishingly rare.

If you're serious about this, you need to engage a solicitor immediately, but be under no illusions they're not miracle workers.

Whichever, it's going to cost a lot of money (going to court might be *cheaper*!) - this is unavoidable at this point.

In the statement we had written the truth, however as i said she had deliberately used it previously

 

[stressedou101]

Just to pick up on one point, I am not sure that a relatively minor offence for fare evasion would be consequential for someone working in an ancillary role in the health service. Obviously if she were on the medical side then it would be different, but just being in catering probably not (unless she handles money as part of her role maybe?) Though if convicted she would check whether she needs to disclose it, and do so if required.

Yes she does handle money as she often is put on shifts at the coffee shop.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Jul 2025 ==

Attaching redacted letter

 

[AlterEgo]

In the statement we had written the truth, however as i said she had deliberately used it previously

It's not a statement that any reasonable person would believe.

"I accidentally took this item out of the shop this one time you caught me" then they find you've shoplifted in exactly the same way 45 times before. Including the previous day. And the day before that. And most days for the previous 6 weeks.

 

[djw]

Attaching redacted letter

You need to redact the seventh image.

 

[stressedou101]

You need to redact the seventh image.

Already reported to admins. Thank you

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Seeking advise for my mother who had been using her moms (my grandmas) freedom pass to travel to and from work on multiple occasions and has been caught by the inspector in plain clothes as soon as he touched in on her way to work.

Is it possible that the card user was deliberately targeted? Travel to and from work would likely be at similar times every day and would show up as a pattern. The point being that it's likely to be the exception that Freedom pass holders are in regular employment. The recent Channel 5 programme implied that investigators would also look at CCTV which might identify the card user as seemingly not old enough for a Freedom pass.

 

[AlterEgo]

Is it possible that the card user was deliberately targeted? Travel to and from work would likely be at similar times every day and would show up as a pattern. The point being that it's likely to be the exception that Freedom pass holders are in regular employment. The recent Channel 5 programme implied that investigators would also look at CCTV which might identify the card user as seemingly not old enough for a Freedom pass.

This doesn't seem likely for 45 offences. The list of journeys has disappeared now but they were not to the same station every day at the same time. TfL will probably only consider staking someone out if the level of offending means they will get a *lot* of money back, not £200-odd.

 

[enyoueffsea]

I do believe a solicitor who posts on here has said they’ve been able to get offences with TfL disposed of by way of final warning despite a summons already issued.

The circumstances of those cases we cannot know and therefore how relevant this is to your case will be questionable.

That said, you are aware of the costs involved in instructing a solicitor as well as the risk that they cannot guarantee success.

I’m not convinced by the version of events or mitigation included here, so I won’t go further than this.

However, I do hope your mother is accessing support for her mental health conditions and has adequate clinical oversight.

 

[Hadders]

Just to be clear, if the case goes to court then you will be convicted. The court would not 'let you off' or give you a warning. What the court can do is give you a lesser punishment (i.e. the level of the fine) if you provide them with sufficient mitigation.