GTR intention to prosecute

[gridds1]

Hi everyone , hope you’re well.
I need some advice and some reassurance that i will be okay. Around a month ago i used a railcard that i knew was expired for over a year , on a 2 stop journey . As i arrived at my destination, i saw the revenue protection were waiting , so in a panic i bought a full price ticket with no railcard from the stop inbetween my departure station and my arrival station , to my departure station. The revenue protection scanned my ticket and could see i just bought it. i was honest about my initial ticket having an invalid rail card , and they took all my details regarding both the tickets i bought and said they would be in touch.

Around 3 years ago i got caught without an out of date railcard but just paid a penalty fare and it was settled , but im concerned this is now my second offence.

I am absolutely mortified that this is happened and terrified about getting a criminal record and want to do anything i can to avoid this.

The train operator is GTR , which from this forum i am aware is usually reasonable with offering a settlement instead of insisting to go to court , but how do i go about this matter ? I’m yet to receive a letter yet but i need reassurance and i want to be prepared.

Honestly i have purchased tickets using an invalid railcard prior to this incident i was caught for a month ago , and im assuming these will be looked at ? I am more than happy to pay them money i owe.

I feel so ashamed that i have acted in this way in order and i want them to know i have learnt my lesson , changed my behaviour and will never do this again and i am willing to do anything to put this right to not have to go to court and get a criminal record . Please help

 

[SECR 65]

Welcome to the forum,

People have managed to settle with GTR on their third offence - hopefully you'll be OK. Important that this never happens again though. Think it was this thread: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/witness-statement.295896/

There's nothing you can really do until the letter arrives, which could be a number of months, except read other GTR Notice of Intention to Prosecute threads on the forum. You can be fairly certain of the wording of the letter, so I suppose you could start to draft a response if you wanted to.

GTR often don't bother auditing journey history, but recently they have been seen to. So be prepared to pay the anytime single fare for every journey without a valid ticket, plus an admin fee, which could be in the region of £100.

Let us know if you need help finding other threads to look through.

If you've heard nothing from GTR in 4-5 months, and have been checking post, come back here and let us know.

Try not to panic, as there isn't much you can do now. Just make sure you always have a valid ticket going forward. Just ask any questions you may have. This is not a guarantee, but I don't think you'll be taken to court, if you cooperate with GTR.

 

[MotCO]

From GTR's perspective, they want to be assured that henceforth you will always buy the correct ticket. However, having been caught doing something similar 3 years ago, you need to think about how you can ensure them that you have learnt your lesson and will not 'reoffend'. This could be a tough ask. However, if you take the advice offered on this site, you should be able to avoid a Court case, but the cost of the settlement may be higher if they have to incur high admin costs in researching your case.

One thing to ask is have you kept the same address as 3 years ago, and are you still buying your tickets from the same supplier? If not, this might break the link, so GTR may not be able to match you with the incident 3 years ago.

 

[furlong]

This could be a tough ask.

Not with GTR!