GA travel irregularity

[ben27]

Hi

Just over a month ago I got stopped exiting Stansted Mountfichet station by transport police and what I think now was a revenue protection officer. I was travelling from Cambridge but only bought a ticket to the next station to get through barriers not thinking that I would be stopped because there are usually no barriers at Stansted. When I saw the officers at the exit I quickly bought a ticket but they could see when the purchase went through and I couldnt talk my way out of it because they could see I had tapped through barriers at Cambridge half an hour before that. I owned up to it pretty quickly and he took my details down and said they would be in touch once theyd done an investigation and worked out how much I owed them. He had a brief look through my trainline account and could see that I had used my 16-17 railcard on multiple occasions since I turned 18 last December. I have done this previously when money was tight (no excusing my behaviour) but I generally buy tickets and have had a season ticket for the previous 2 years for college which expired just before this journey. Since then I have purchased a 18-25 railcard and bought all my tickets correctly. I am asking for some advice if possible in how to respond to the letter I have recieved from GA (attached below) which seems to be the standard letter I have seen when I was looking at this forum a month ago and I am obviously hoping to keep this out of court and am willing to pay any settlement required. For further information, the letter doesnt mention any other incidents and based off advice I have seen on other posts I am assuming its probably best to only mention this specific incident. Also, I have never been stopped without a ticket or recived a penalty fare before I was wondering if it is worth mentioning this and the season tickets I have bought or whether I should just keep it concise and apologetic. Again, I am in no way looking to excuse my actions or try and explain my way out of the situation and I will reflect that in my email back to them I made deliberate decision that day and am facing the consequences.

Thanks to the people on this forum for helping on these situation I will report back after with what happened so people in the future can see.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi

Just over a month ago I got stopped exiting Stansted Mountfichet station by transport police and what I think now was a revenue protection officer. I was travelling from Cambridge but only bought a ticket to the next station to get through barriers not thinking that I would be stopped because there are usually no barriers at Stansted. When I saw the officers at the exit I quickly bought a ticket but they could see when the purchase went through and I couldnt talk my way out of it because they could see I had tapped through barriers at Cambridge half an hour before that. I owned up to it pretty quickly and he took my details down and said they would be in touch once theyd done an investigation and worked out how much I owed them. He had a brief look through my trainline account and could see that I had used my 16-17 railcard on multiple occasions since I turned 18 last December. I have done this previously when money was tight (no excusing my behaviour) but I generally buy tickets and have had a season ticket for the previous 2 years for college which expired just before this journey. Since then I have purchased a 18-25 railcard and bought all my tickets correctly. I am asking for some advice if possible in how to respond to the letter I have recieved from GA (attached below) which seems to be the standard letter I have seen when I was looking at this forum a month ago and I am obviously hoping to keep this out of court and am willing to pay any settlement required. For further information, the letter doesnt mention any other incidents and based off advice I have seen on other posts I am assuming its probably best to only mention this specific incident. Also, I have never been stopped without a ticket or recived a penalty fare before I was wondering if it is worth mentioning this and the season tickets I have bought or whether I should just keep it concise and apologetic. Again, I am in no way looking to excuse my actions or try and explain my way out of the situation and I will reflect that in my email back to them I made deliberate decision that day and am facing the consequences.

Thanks to the people on this forum for helping on these situation I will report back after with what happened so people in the future can see.View attachment 164538

Welcome.

So you say you have used a railcard discount you were not entitled to use on several occasions (so multiple ticket offences from railways point of view). And they know this

But then you ask about mentioning the fact you have not been stopped before. Mentioning that would be unwise as all you are saying is they have not managed to catch you until your luck ran out!

 

[ikcdab]

The usual advice is to only respond to the question they have asked. In this case, that's the single offence. They haven't referred to previous cases and you are not required to incriminate yourself.
Draft a reply, post it here and you will get good feedback.

 

[Hadders]

They are asking you to contact them about your case to potentially settle the matter out of court. While you're not required to incriminate yourself being realistic, there are two outcomes:

1. Write to them, 'fess up' to what you've done and how many times you've done it. They will offer you a settlement costing the fares avoided at the Anytime rate with no discount for the invaliud tickets you did purchase plus an admin fee.

2. Play hardball with them and they will prosecute you for the single offence on the day you were caught.

 

[ben27]

This is my first draft I have made based of the advice I have seen on this forum, please let me know if I need to rewrite or what I need to amend. Also I'm assuming I will need to to put the case reference number on the top when I send the email? Draft as follows:

Dear Greater Anglia,



I am writing in response to the travel irregularity letter I received on 27th August.

On Thursday 18th July I was travelling on the Greater Anglia service from Cambridge to London Liverpool Street and when I departed the train at Stansted Mountfitchet after travelling from Cambridge I failed to present a valid ticket to the staff member when I was asked.

My actions were unacceptable and I accept full responsibility for the incident. I understand now that my behaviour shifts the financial burden onto the train company and other abiding passengers. I fully understand the severity of my actions and I am extremely sorry and ashamed of my behaviour. Since this incident, I have ensured that I have the correct ticket for every journey I make and will continue to do so and I assure you that this behaviour will not be repeated.

I would be very grateful for the opportunity to resolve this matter outside of the court and I would like to offer to cover all of the administrative costs and pay whatever Greater Anglia considers reasonable in order to settle the situation.



Yours faithfully,

First name Last name

 

[Haywain]

That's a very good letter in my opinion.

 

[ben27]

Is this good to send as it is then?

 

[Hadders]

I agree the letter is good. Please let us know how Greater Anglia respond.

 

[MotCO]

A nice concise letter without any waffle - quite refreshing

You may want to say that you have now bought an 18-25 railcard which illustrates your intention to buy correct tickets in the future because you want to legally minimise your costs.

As an aside, please set a reminder of the expiry date of your railcard on your phone etc, so that you can renew it before it expires.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

You may want to say that you have now bought an 18-25 railcard..

16-25 Railcard, presumably?

 

[MotCO]

16-25 Railcard, presumably?

Indeed. I'm far too old for one

 

[ben27]

Thank you very much for your help everyone I have sent the email now and will report back once I get a response.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Sep 2024 ==


== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Sep 2024 ==


== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Sep 2024 ==

Hi

Just over a month ago I got stopped exiting Stansted Mountfichet station by transport police and what I think now was a revenue protection officer. I was travelling from Cambridge but only bought a ticket to the next station to get through barriers not thinking that I would be stopped because there are usually no barriers at Stansted. When I saw the officers at the exit I quickly bought a ticket but they could see when the purchase went through and I couldnt talk my way out of it because they could see I had tapped through barriers at Cambridge half an hour before that. I owned up to it pretty quickly and he took my details down and said they would be in touch once theyd done an investigation and worked out how much I owed them. He had a brief look through my trainline account and could see that I had used my 16-17 railcard on multiple occasions since I turned 18 last December. I have done this previously when money was tight (no excusing my behaviour) but I generally buy tickets and have had a season ticket for the previous 2 years for college which expired just before this journey. Since then I have purchased a 18-25 railcard and bought all my tickets correctly. I am asking for some advice if possible in how to respond to the letter I have recieved from GA (attached below) which seems to be the standard letter I have seen when I was looking at this forum a month ago and I am obviously hoping to keep this out of court and am willing to pay any settlement required. For further information, the letter doesnt mention any other incidents and based off advice I have seen on other posts I am assuming its probably best to only mention this specific incident. Also, I have never been stopped without a ticket or recived a penalty fare before I was wondering if it is worth mentioning this and the season tickets I have bought or whether I should just keep it concise and apologetic. Again, I am in no way looking to excuse my actions or try and explain my way out of the situation and I will reflect that in my email back to them I made deliberate decision that day and am facing the consequences.

Thanks to the people on this forum for helping on these situation I will report back after with what happened so people in the future can see.View attachment 164538

Quick update - I have received a settlement offer of £2,138 which comes as a huge shock to me given that I didn't think I had made that many journeys since I had turned 18 using my 16-17 saver. Upon further investigation, my railcard actually expired in August last year which i was completely unaware of but this still seems like an absolutely crazy amount and I'm wondering how they calculated this, are they charging me twice for every return journey without taking into consideration what I already paid? Is there a chance they don't have a record of my 16-17 saver at all as I had to log into my account on the computer to access this? Anyway I'm assuming theres nothing I can really do other than pay the amount which I can just about afford but will unfortunately wipe out all the savings I made for travelling next year. I can't believe I was this stupid I should've checked my railcard last year.

How can I calculate the cost of my journeys to double check the settlement or is there no point?

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you very much for your help everyone I have sent the email now and will report back once I get a response.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Sep 2024 ==


== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Sep 2024 ==


== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Sep 2024 ==


Quick update - I have received a settlement offer of £2,138 which comes as a huge shock to me given that I didn't think I had made that many journeys since I had turned 18 using my 16-17 saver. Upon further investigation, my railcard actually expired in August last year which i was completely unaware of but this still seems like an absolutely crazy amount and I'm wondering how they calculated this, are they charging me twice for every return journey without taking into consideration what I already paid? Is there a chance they don't have a record of my 16-17 saver at all as I had to log into my account on the computer to access this? Anyway I'm assuming theres nothing I can really do other than pay the amount which I can just about afford but will unfortunately wipe out all the savings I made for travelling next year. I can't believe I was this stupid I should've checked my railcard last year.

How can I calculate the cost of my journeys to double check the settlement or is there no point?

You may need to base your calculation on the Anytime Single fare for each journey one way. With no allowance for what you paid.

If that is then still way off the sum you are being asked for it may be you could risk asking how they have calculated the amount. But you would need to do that very politely.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

You may need to base your calculation on the Anytime Single fare for each journey one way. With no allowance for what you paid.

Not sure if the settlement figure quoted above by the OP includes any contribution towards the train company's investigation and admin fees. If the typical journey in question was Cambridge to Stansted Mountfichet or vice-versa, the Anytime Day Single fare is currently £13.20 (or £12.60 before the fares revision which became effective from early March 2024).

 

[Haywain]

Not sure if the settlement figure quoted above by the OP includes any contribution towards the train company's investigation and admin fees. If the typical journey in question was Cambridge to Stansted Mountfichet or vice-versa, the Anytime Day Single fare is currently £13.20 (or £12.60 before the fares revision which became effective from early March 2024).

And the fares are the same from "the next station" (Shelford) to Stansted Mountfitchet.

 

[ben27]

Not sure if the settlement figure quoted above by the OP includes any contribution towards the train company's investigation and admin fees. If the typical journey in question was Cambridge to Stansted Mountfichet or vice-versa, the Anytime Day Single fare is currently £13.20 (or £12.60 before the fares revision which became effective from early March 2024).

Because of the fact that I had a annual season ticket, which I didn't purchase through trainline on the second year, there isn't really a typical journey in my booking history. I'm worried that it might look like I have been short ticketing (which I did a few times admittedly probably 5-10 times) frequently for the last year given that I use the train a lot and many of my journeys look pretty random. However, in the email they only mention my history of using a railcard I wasnt entitled to so I may not have been penalised for short ticketing. It might be worth mentioning as well that Stansted Mountfichet isnt my home station, that was where I happened to be getting off that day.

The settlement includes 100 quids worth of administration costs I forgot to put that in my message.

 

[furlong]

It should be accompanied by a schedule providing the breakdown of the sum they are asking for i.e. how it is justified.
If there isn't one, you should ask for this.
We have seen cases before where significant mistakes were made and people were being double charged.