greater Anglia fraud investigation

[Leow21234]

I was stopped on a train before Christmas with a ticket from Beaulieu park to Chelmsford which i had purchased with a 16/17 saver which i don't have, my original journey was also from Witham. i haven't heard anything until the 14th of Jan when i received this Email
Good Afternoon,
We are emailing from the Greater Anglia fraud department. We have been investigating industry data and have been led to believe you are potentially not paying full fares on Greater Anglia services. There appear to be a number of incorrectly purchased tickets showing on your account that are a breach of our terms and conditions and considered fraudulent activity. Please refer to our Revenue Protection and Prosecutions Policy: Revenue Protection & Prosecutions Policy .
Attached is a letter for you to read.
Please respond within 7 days to potentially settle this case.
Kind regards

Revenue Protection Fraud and Investigations Team
I Have been buying tickets from Witham to Chelmsford quite frequently using a 16/17 saver i do not have and then a couple tickets to Beaulieu instead of witham. I have also part traveled a few times ie i have bought a ticket from Chelmsford to ingatestone and got off at Stratford. i know i have been committing irregularity's i just need to know the best way to deal with this situation.

i replied to original email with this

Thank you for your letter regarding irregularities. If you would send me details of these irregularities and how to move to some sort of settlement I would of course be happy to cooperate with you.

and on the 30th of january i got this email back

Good morning,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your case.

Upon further investigation, we have also noticed that your tickets are not correlating with the full journey you are taking.

Some highlighted example:
(there was a picture of 3 journeys here)




14/11/2025 13:28:00     14/11/2025 13:40:00     Witham      Chelmsford >>>> REFUNDED
14/11/2025 13:36:00     14/11/2025 13:40:00     Beaulieu Park     Chelmsford >>> SCANNED

Could you confirm your full journeys please?

16-17 railcard - 28/08/2021, 17/06/2022 -02/09/2022, 02/08/2025-16/11/2025
16-25 railcard - 16/10/2022

At this stage we would like to offer you an opportunity to explain these irregularities on your account, and based on your response the decision will be to either offer you the opportunity to repay any funds relating to these journeys (plus our administration fee), (b) to forward your case to our prosecutions department for processing or (c) close your case (if sufficient evidence has been provided and proved).

Kind regards

Revenue Protection Fraud and Investigations Team


And then on the 3rd of Feb i received this Email



Good morning,

We have not received any contact from you; you were previously contacted on 30/01/2026.
At this stage we would like to offer you an opportunity to explain these irregularities on your account, and based on your response the decision will be to either offer you the opportunity to repay any funds relating to these journeys (plus our administration fee), (b) to forward your case to our prosecutions department for processing or (c) or close your case (if sufficient evidence has been provided and proved)
If we do not hear from you, your case will be passed over to our Prosecutions team for processing.

Kind regards

Revenue Protection Fraud and Investigations Team


I am looking for some expert advice on how i should respond, I can pay a settlement and i want to keep this out of court if possible

 

[WesternLancer]

I am looking for some expert advice on how i should respond, I can pay a settlement and i want to keep this out of court if possible

so if you do not dispute what they are accusing you of you need to draft a response that

- apologises for what you have done
- accepts that you understand what you did was wrong
- makes it clear you will not be doing it again
- offers to pay any fares owed and their administrative costs for investigating this

Have a go at writing a draft that covers that (see other threads for examples) but post it here for checking before you send it

The general advice often given on this forum may be of help - I have pasted it below - of course you are some way into this process now anyway:

Firstly, you committed a criminal offence by travelling with an invalid ticket and railway companies are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they want to. The good news is they will normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with them and who haven't come to their attention before.

Next, what happens is the railway company will write to you. The letter will go to the address that you gave them / on any of your ID they checked so you need to be able to access hard copy post at that address as they often send things that way (but also check e-mail and spam). It is extremely important that you reply, and you'll only have a limited time to do so (often 14 days from the date on their communication).

When you receive the letter post a redacted copy of it in this thread, along with your draft reply and forum members will proof read it for you. You'll find lots of example letters you can use in this section of the forum but the reply basically needs to mention:

- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident and will not do this again
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the railway company’s administrative costs in dealing with the matter

The railway will probably offer you an out of court settlement. Expect to have to pay the cost of the fare for the journey you made at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the invalid ticket you purchased. In addition they will charge an admin fee, typically £150. They will also audit your online ticket purchase history and if this shows you've purchased other tickets that were not valid (eg railcard discounted tickets when you did not have a valid railcard, or tickets for only part of the journey, or tickets bought after boarding the train you travelled on ) they will probably factor the cost of these journeys into the settlement offer. Depending on how many journeys you've made over the period concerned this could end up being expensive.

Settlements usually have to be paid in full within a few days of them being offered so if money is tight you might want to think about how you will raise the sum required at short notice.

 

[Leow21234]

If what you’ve showed us is all you’ve sent, there is no possibility of this going to court, they have no evidence against you and are hoping you’ll just pay up. Stop responding and they will give up.

Obviously you need to pay the correct fare going forward.

this is all I've received so far , does me being stopped on the train before Christmas not effect the situation then if these are the only emails I've received ?

 

[WesternLancer]

If what you’ve showed us is all you’ve sent, there is no possibility of this going to court, they have no evidence against you and are hoping you’ll just pay up. Stop responding and they will give up.

Obviously you need to pay the correct fare going forward.

But the OP was caught before Christmas with an invalid ticket, stopped and questioned as I understand it - am I missing something?

@Leow21234 - was what you have posted above all of the correspondence you have received form the railway company (excluding your personal details of course - no need to shore them) - did you receive anything before this but after the date you were stopped and questioned about your ticket before Christmas - when that stop happened what did they do - did they take your name and address / give you any slip of paper or receipt or anything? Did they indicate they would report you for investigation or issue you with a Penalty Fare?

 

[z444z]

this is all I've received so far , does me being stopped on the train before Christmas not effect the situation then if these are the only emails I've received ?

Just deleted my response, I had missed that you were stopped. The email they’ve sent is odd and threw me off because it’s the one they send when they’ve detected suspicious purchases without any actual evidence.

@Leow21234 what happened when you were stopped - were your details taken, ticket scanned, were you given any paperwork, asked to pay anything?

 

[Mattplans]

I agree. We sometimes see an email like this without them being stopped.

It would’ve been interesting to hear if OP actually supplied their email when they were stopped.

But it is moot now, as OP has already engaged with them

 

[Leow21234]

Just deleted my response, I had missed that you were stopped. The email they’ve sent is odd and threw me off because it’s the one they send when they’ve detected suspicious purchases without any actual evidence.

@Leow21234 what happened when you were stopped - were your details taken, ticket scanned, were you given any paperwork, asked to pay anything?

when i was stopped my ticket was scanned and i was asked questions and told to give my details , i think i gave them slightly wrong details and did not give them the email address that i have been receiving the emails from them

 

[z444z]

But it is moot now, as OP has already engaged with them

Not convinced this is the case, nothing the OP has said is an admission of any wrongdoing so if they hadn’t been stopped, or the issue they were stopped for has already been disposed of, I think ignoring would be the way forward.

But it does seem likely the OP will need to settle given that they were stopped.

 

[Leow21234]

But the OP was caught before Christmas with an invalid ticket, stopped and questioned as I understand it - am I missing something?

@Leow21234 - was what you have posted above all of the correspondence you have received form the railway company (excluding your personal details of course - no need to shore them) - did you receive anything before this but after the date you were stopped and questioned about your ticket before Christmas - when that stop happened what did they do - did they take your name and address / give you any slip of paper or receipt or anything? Did they indicate they would report you for investigation or issue you with a Penalty Fare?

these are the only emails I've received and when i was stopped he scanned my ticket and filled out a report , from my memory i gave him slightly incorrect details and did not give the email address that I've been getting emails from the train company

 

[z444z]

when i was stopped my ticket was scanned and i was asked questions and told to give my details , i think i gave them slightly wrong details and did not give them the email address that i have been receiving the emails from them

Have they at any point mentioned or alluded to the fact that you were stopped in their correspondence? It doesn’t look like it.

I think (but can’t be certain) that this contact has been triggered by their algorithm detecting suspicious purchases, and that the team dealing with this don’t know that you’re also the person who was reported on whatever date you were stopped.

When you say “slightly incorrect details”, what does this mean?

 

[Kite159]

these are the only emails I've received and when i was stopped he scanned my ticket and filled out a report , from my memory i gave him slightly incorrect details and did not give the email address that I've been getting emails from the train company

I guess the email address they are emailing you on is linked to your online account, whereas the email address you gave the member of staff is different? Was it a genuine email address, or was that also slightly incorrect?

 

[Leow21234]

Have they at any point mentioned or alluded to the fact that you were stopped in their correspondence? It doesn’t look like it.

I think (but can’t be certain) that this contact has been triggered by their algorithm detecting suspicious purchases, and that the team dealing with this don’t know that you’re also the person who was reported on whatever date you were stopped.

When you say “slightly incorrect details”, what does this mean?

i was verry tired when stopped so i dont remember the full encounter completely(sorry) but i think i gave them fake names and adresses but similar to my real ones

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Feb 2026 ==

I guess the email address they are emailing you on is linked to your online account, whereas the email address you gave the member of staff is different? Was it a genuine email address, or was that also slightly incorrect?

i cant remember but i might have given them a fake email, the email connected to my trainline acount is the one ive been recieving emails to

 

[WesternLancer]

i was verry tired when stopped so i dont remember the full encounter completely(sorry) but i think i gave them fake names and adresses but similar to my real ones

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Feb 2026 ==


i cant remember but i might have given them a fake email, the email connected to my trainline acount is the one ive been recieving emails to

Thanks - helpful to read the follow up information

Others my have different views but this is my view:

- you are not really in a strong position here because they stopped and questioned you and you can't really recall exactly what happened - so they may have body cam footage of you for example recording what you said and what you looked like.

- they have also found evidence of a digital fingerprints for suspected fare evasion and have contacted you about this - you have replied thus indicating that is a real e-mail address and account.

the risk is that they might join the dots on all this at some point sooner or later.

what you do next probably depends on your appetite for the risk of that happening, and the impact that court action might have on you if they did bring court action against you. I am not really sure how strong a likelihood that is of happening however.

 

[saismee]

the risk is that they might join the dots on all this at some point sooner or later.

Quite a large risk depending on the OP's career circumstances. As you've been stopped OP, I wouldn't suggest risking ignoring their correspondence.

 

[FenMan]

the risk is that they might join the dots on all this at some point sooner or later.

Does anyone know what the backlog at GA looks like at the moment?

The email from GA was on 14th January, but it didn't mention the incident "before Christmas" where the OP's details were taken.

Unless GA Prosecutions are so hot off the mark they're following up incidents within 15 working days of a report being received (allowing for Christmas/New Year), it wouldn't surprise me if the OP receives another communication from GA covering the pre-Christmas incident.

 

[Leow21234]

Thanks - helpful to read the follow up information

Others my have different views but this is my view:

- you are not really in a strong position here because they stopped and questioned you and you can't really recall exactly what happened - so they may have body cam footage of you for example recording what you said and what you looked like.

- they have also found evidence of a digital fingerprints for suspected fare evasion and have contacted you about this - you have replied thus indicating that is a real e-mail address and account.

the risk is that they might join the dots on all this at some point sooner or later.

what you do next probably depends on your appetite for the risk of that happening, and the impact that court action might have on you if they did bring court action against you. I am not really sure how strong a likelihood that is of happening however.

so would you recommend i admit to it and draft a response looking for a settlement and then send that in here? also is there a possibility of reaching a settlement after they have decided to prosecute

 

[saismee]

Unless GA Prosecutions are so hot off the mark they're following up incidents within 15 working days of a report being received (allowing for Christmas/New Year), it wouldn't surprise me if the OP receives another communication from GA covering the pre-Christmas incident.

I agree. It's likely a coincidence that OP received this before the other letter (assuming there will be one). If OP settles it here then they should keep all correspondence saved so they can sort out the other letter if/when it arrives.

also is there a possibility of reaching a settlement after they have decided to prosecute

GA get more out of settling so they are likely to settle with you.

 

[WesternLancer]

Quite a large risk depending on the OP's career circumstances. As you've been stopped OP, I wouldn't suggest risking ignoring their correspondence.

Indeed - personally I think I would be trying to pay them what they think is owed in the hope all this can be closed down.

But I suspect some other forum members might suggest differently perhaps.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Feb 2026 ==

so would you recommend i admit to it and draft a response looking for a settlement and then send that in here? also is there a possibility of reaching a settlement after they have decided to prosecute

If you want to do this then the key thing is to get the wording right - I'd not actually admit to anything in any written reply for example.

I suggest wating 24 hours for others to reply and advise - but have a go at some sort of draft response (which you can keep private for now) should you wish to reply and get that draft checked here before sending it. I do note that they are setting quite a short timescale for you to reply but it may be you can take that to the deadline if needs be.

 

[z444z]

I think settling would be sensible here. The OP could ignore this, and nothing would happen.... until the case involving them being stopped hits the desk, and then they are likely to connect the dots and potentially go straight to prosecution as they've already offered to settle.

 

[Leow21234]

Does anyone know what the backlog at GA looks like at the moment?

The email from GA was on 14th January, but it didn't mention the incident "before Christmas" where the OP's details were taken.

Unless GA Prosecutions are so hot off the mark they're following up incidents within 15 working days of a report being received (allowing for Christmas/New Year), it wouldn't surprise me if the OP receives another communication from GA covering the pre-Christmas incident.

from looking at the tickets i bought i was either stopped on the 14th or 16th of november as these are my only tickets from beaulieu to chelmsford

 

[z444z]

Does anyone know what the backlog at GA looks like at the moment?

We see very few cases from GA other than the fishing emails, so no.

it wouldn't surprise me if the OP receives another communication from GA covering the pre-Christmas incident.

Agreed, and this is when any attempt at ignoring this current communication would fall apart and could end really badly!

 

[Mattplans]

I think we must tread with care and err on the side of caution and advise OP to cooperate to reach a settlement.

I agree that it is likely a data trawl that initiated contact in this case as GA will usually send their prosecution threats by mail after they stop someone.

Either way, OP is caught, it hasn’t helped that they’ve engaged, and they may very well receive future communication… the letter that is usually sent after a person has been stopped, in which case they will need to settle anyway

I think of one similar case… https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/greater-anglia-fraud-department.297764/#post-7645603


perhaps the data trawl team is moving a little quicker than the team that sends these usual letters with prosecution theats

 

[z444z]

perhaps the data trawl team is moving a little quicker than the team that sends these usual letters with prosecution theats

I believe GA (sometimes? always?) used ITAL to handle actual notices of intended prosecution.

 

[Mattplans]

This does show an alarming lack of communication at GA, considering this isn’t the first case we’ve seen like this

And are you officially reported for prosecution if you are not given the MG11 Witness statement? perhaps OP can confirm whether he/she received one; or was otherwise told they had been reported for prosecution/further investigation at the time they were stopped - @Leow21234

It may also be possible - but unlikely - that when OP was stopped their account was somehow flagged directly to their data trawl team… but again it seems strange there’s no mention or reference to the initial stop in the email.

It’s almost as if the person writing that rmail has no idea the recipient has actually been stopped on the railway already!

 

[z444z]

It’s almost as if the person writing that rmail has no idea the recipient has actually been stopped on the railway already!

This is what threw me initially, I missed that the OP had been stopped at all!

 

[WesternLancer]

It’s almost as if the person writing that rmail has no idea the recipient has actually been stopped on the railway already!

This is of course possible.
eg

The algorithm detected the OP.
and
staff detected the OP evading

Just happened by co-incidence around the same time - with the chances of both happening increased by the evasion behaviour the OP was committing perhaps.

 

[saismee]

And are you officially reported for prosecution if you are not given the MG11 Witness statement?

Yes.

 

[John R]

I think the wording:-

Thank you for your letter regarding irregularities. If you would send me details of these irregularities and how to move to some sort of settlement I would of course be happy to cooperate with you.

could very easily be construed that the OP accepts that they have done something wrong - else why would they be so keen to ask for a settlement if they are squeaky clean.

So I am in the camp of continuing to cooperate and settle rather than ignoring any future correspondence, given that they have also been stopped within the last couple of months.

 

[z444z]

could very easily be construed that the OP accepts that they have done something wrong - else why would they be so keen to ask for a settlement if they are squeaky clean.

Disagree. It would give GA precisely nothing to work with, other than maybe a hunch, which they already have because they emailed in the first place.

So I am in the camp of continuing to cooperate and settle rather than ignoring any future correspondence, given that they have also been stopped within the last couple of months.

Agreed.

 

[Leow21234]

Indeed - personally I think I would be trying to pay them what they think is owed in the hope all this can be closed down.

But I suspect some other forum members might suggest differently perhaps.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Feb 2026 ==


If you want to do this then the key thing is to get the wording right - I'd not actually admit to anything in any written reply for example.

I suggest wating 24 hours for others to reply and advise - but have a go at some sort of draft response (which you can keep private for now) should you wish to reply and get that draft checked here before sending it. I do note that they are setting quite a short timescale for you to reply but it may be you can take that to the deadline if needs be.

I would like to say I'm sorry for these irregularities on my account, over this process i have realized the wrong in my actions and have learned from them, it wont happen again. I would be very thankful if we could settle this outside of court id be happy to pay the due fares and Anny administration fees
something like this ok ? if there's anyway i can word this better please let me know @WesternLancer @z444z