Govia Thameslink Intent to Prosecute

[Urbans26]

Hi all,

I recently recieved a letter from GTR after I was caught travelling without a valid railcard from London Bridge to Gatwick Airport. On the backside of the letter, they gave me the opportunity to state what happened from my point of view; and I took the opportunity to apologise and own up to what I had done (and have done in the past, as my railcard expired around a year ago - I do not travel by rail that much and I estimate I have taken around 15-20 trips since my railcard expired, although I am not making excuses or trying to lower my stupidity for travelling without a valid railcard). I stated in the letter that I was keen to settle out of court and was happy to pay whatever fine they deemed appropriate.

I also sent an email and phoned the Prosecutions team to cover every angle and make sure that they recieved some form of correspondence, and to make sure that they did not accidentally think that I had ignored their letter; which a very nice lady did confirm over the phone.

I was just curious as to what the odds are that GTR will want to settle out of court? Obviously this is not a case where I had a valid railcard and forgot it, or that it expired a month ago- there is a digital papertrail where they can see that everytime I travelled on GTR services I said I had a railcard when I did not. This was an extremely stupid thing to do, and I am immensely remoresful and am prepared to basically do anything to avoid having a criminal record.

Any advice / guidance would be appreciated!

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

GTR are entitled to prosecute if they want to bit they almost always settle out of court with people who co-operate with them and who haven't come to their attention before. Expect to have to pay the cost of the fares avoided at the full Anytime rate plus an admin fee, typically £150.

 

[Urbans26]

Ok, thanks for the response! This is the first time this has happened (except for when I was travelling on GWR from Paddington to Oxford around 8 years ago, and in that instance I had genuinely forgotten my valid railcard and had to pay a £50 fine upfront whilst on the train). Would you happen to know how long it would take to get a response from GTR, is it a matter of days or weeks?

 

[Hadders]

It's normally weeks rather than days.

 

[John R]

To pick up on @Hadders point regarding Anytime fares being used to determine any settlement amount, if you have been travelling longer distances this could be very expensive, so it is in your interest to work out exactly how much you could be on the hook for, as you will have to pay within 14 days to avoid prosecution. If you've only done local journeys around the South East then it won't be so painful, but to give one example, an Anytime Single from London to Bristol is £133, so one return trip alone would add £266 to the amount. They typically won't offset anything you've already paid when an expired railcard is used either.

 

[Urbans26]

Yep, all my trips are between London Bridge and Haywards Heath so not overly expensive.
Another thing I forgot to mention to GTR in my letter is that I have since renewed my Railcard to ensure that this does not happen again - is it worth sending a follow-up email to highlight this point, or should I not reach out to them before they reach out to me?

 

[John R]

Yep, all my trips are between London Bridge and Haywards Heath so not overly expensive.
Another thing I forgot to mention to GTR in my letter is that I have since renewed my Railcard to ensure that this does not happen again - is it worth sending a follow-up email to highlight this point, or should I not reach out to them before they reach out to me?

I wouldn't bother troubling them again just to tell them that.