Govia Witness Statement

[Fawkes Cat]

Hi Guys,

Thanks again for all your help and time looking into this for me. The dreaded letter arrived yesterday.

This is my drafted response:

Dear Sir or Madam,


I am writing in response to your letter regarding my journey on 28 May 2025, during which I was found to be travelling without a valid ticket between London Bridge and xxx, having been stopped by the revenue protection team at xxx


I wish to express my sincere apologies for my actions. I acknowledge that I presented an invalid ticket (a Zone 1 to xxx fare) and that I attempted to use it for a journey it did not cover. This was a serious lapse in judgment on my part, and I take full responsibility for my mistake.


I understand that fare evasion and misuse of tickets impose a significant cost on both the rail industry and the wider public. I deeply regret contributing to this problem and therefore wish to express that I have learned a valuable lesson from this incident and can assure you that I will never repeat such behaviour in the future.


I respectfully request that you consider allowing me to settle this matter out of court. I am fully willing to pay any outstanding fares, administrative fees, or reasonable costs associated with this incident to resolve it promptly.


Once again, I would like to offer my unreserved apologies for my actions and any inconvenience caused to Govia Thameslink Railway and its staff.


Yours faithfully,

I'm conscious that this might be too brief so please let me know if that's the case. Should I include the part where I showed my ticket at the barriers but in a manner to avoid a thorough inspection? Which is how I got through.

I'd also like to ask if the original letter needs to be sent with my response, as the letter did go to my old address so I do not have it.

Thank you everyone!

That, I think, is fine. As long as you include your case reference in your letter, you don't need to send a copy of what they sent you as they will already have that on file. I haven't read back through the thread to know if they have your current address, but if they don't, add a note at the beginning or end of your letter to let them know where they can now reach you.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi Guys,

Thanks again for all your help and time looking into this for me. The dreaded letter arrived yesterday.

This is my drafted response:

Dear Sir or Madam,


I am writing in response to your letter regarding my journey on 28 May 2025, during which I was found to be travelling without a valid ticket between London Bridge and xxx, having been stopped by the revenue protection team at xxx


I wish to express my sincere apologies for my actions. I acknowledge that I presented an invalid ticket (a Zone 1 to xxx fare) and that I attempted to use it for a journey it did not cover. This was a serious lapse in judgment on my part, and I take full responsibility for my mistake.


I understand that fare evasion and misuse of tickets impose a significant cost on both the rail industry and the wider public. I deeply regret contributing to this problem and therefore wish to express that I have learned a valuable lesson from this incident and can assure you that I will never repeat such behaviour in the future.


I respectfully request that you consider allowing me to settle this matter out of court. I am fully willing to pay any outstanding fares, administrative fees, or reasonable costs associated with this incident to resolve it promptly.


Once again, I would like to offer my unreserved apologies for my actions and any inconvenience caused to Govia Thameslink Railway and its staff.


Yours faithfully,

I'm conscious that this might be too brief so please let me know if that's the case. Should I include the part where I showed my ticket at the barriers but in a manner to avoid a thorough inspection? Which is how I got through.

I'd also like to ask if the original letter needs to be sent with my response, as the letter did go to my old address so I do not have it.

Thank you everyone!

Looks good to me. Not too brief in my view.

 

[JoeyBandana]

Thank you both, sending soon!

 

[JoeyBandana]

Hi everyone, I'm sorry for the delay. On the 3rd of Nov I got a positive outcome with a fine of 69.40.

Big relief - the day of the incident was the worst day ever. If I could only tell my past self not to do something so stupid and not to worry too much about the witness statement.

Thank you all for your help!

 

[z444z]

Hi everyone, I'm sorry for the delay. On the 3rd of Nov I got a positive outcome with a fine of 69.40.

Big relief - the day of the incident was the worst day ever. If I could only tell my past self not to do something so stupid and not to worry too much about the witness statement.

Thank you all for your help!

That’s a very good outcome, hardly more than a penalty fare would have been. Admin fees alone are often £150+ but GTR seem to be one of the more reasonable companies to deal with. Thanks for the update!

 

[JoeyBandana]

That's really true, Z44z! Stupidly I hadn't thought about it that way. I was just relieved that they allowed me to setlle out of court without a full awarenss of how much admin feess could be