GTR Short-Fare - Advice/procedure

[johnsmith1234]

Posted this last night stupidly under an account that very clearly gave my ID away- so trying again!

After some advice for those with any experience on the following:

I was caught today short-fare'ing a train travelling from Finsbury Park to Hitchin, as at the barriers I showed a ticket from Stevenage to Hitchin and it hadn't been scanned in and you know the rest! I'm now expecting to receive a letter with intent to prosecute which I then have to reply with my side of the story.

I'm completely guilty here and won't make any excuses there, the truth is I've actually done this maybe 25 times since January of this year, normally just a single trip at a weekend or in the evening during the week, all of which booked through my trainline account which they now have.

My main question is, having seen the letters that come through - do I come clean about the other instances as they can obviously check history, or do I just come clean about the incident in question, offer to pay in full plus admin/fine fees alongside a letter indicating I won't do it again etc. etc. as they won't definitely investigate my past journeys, albeit I'd be surprised if they didn't.

Some facts and other thoughts that may help with responses:

1. never been caught/fined before with expired railcards, incorrect fares etc.
2. I've totalled the value of tickets I've paid (£65) and what I would owe having paid full fare adjusted for my railcard (£261.35), and could provide that evidence/working to them as a sign of good faith
3. There are heaps of legitimate journeys across the UK on my tainline account, but have heard horror stories about them trying to charge you for totally unrelated ones that you could in theory have short-fare'd
4. Ultimately I'm probably not going to know for a few weeks about the letter, however just wanted some steer if anyone could help! Last thing I want is court, but hopefully it seems like GTR have settled with people out of court who have owed a lot more than me.

Any thoughts are welcomed - thanks in advance.

 

[Kilopylae]

Just pasting back in WesternLancer's post from the previous thread:

Welcome.
Basically the advice always given here is if they don’t ask you about other occasions then don’t voluntarily tell them about other occasions.

If they check your purchase history and think it’s suspicious they will then ask you about it and you can then address that question if it happens

But similarly don’t reply and claim you’ve never done it before because that would be a lie and you don’t know what they may or may not know.

Whilst you wait for them to contact you save up the money to most them for all the fares evaded in case they ask.

We don’t see the volume of evasion necessarily making the ability to settle out of court less likely to be possible.

If you’ve not heard from them in about 4 months come back for information on what you might want to do at that point.
Watch your hard copy post e mail and spam.

 

[SECR 65]

GTR do not always bother auditing past journey history, but they might well do.
@WesternLancer has perfectly explained the way you will need to reply and what is likely to happen next.
Provided you recieve, reply to, and cooperate with GTR's letter, you are likely to be offered an out of court settlement.
This would be the anytime single fare (usually without railcard, and without regard to any money already payed), plus an admin fee, potentially about £150 but hopefully less.

 

[johnsmith1234]

GTR do not always bother auditing past journey history, but they might well do.
@WesternLancer has perfectly explained the way you will need to reply and what is likely to happen next.
Provided you recieve, reply to, and cooperate with GTR's letter, you are likely to be offered an out of court settlement.
This would be the anytime single fare (usually without railcard, and without regard to any money already payed), plus an admin fee, potentially about £150 but hopefully less.

Thank you, I thought the railcard hope might be ambitious but you never know. I now just have to sit tight, not sure if it's coming by email or post as he was relatively unclear, will monitor both very carefully - seems to be more GTR on email recently but who knows.

 

[SECR 65]

I have never seen a case in the few months I've been on the forum where GTR have not made initial contact by hard copy post. You will likely be able to respond via the online portal. It's as well to check your emails, but the first letter they send will almost certainly be by post.