Habitual fare evasion

[denim14]

Hello. I was caught recently at a barrier with a short fare ticket - I had bought a ticket that only covered the last part of my journey rather than the full journey. In a panic I lied about where I had started my journey - stating the station I had the ticket for rather than the actual station where I boarded. I was asked which entrance I had gone through at the station I had the ticket for and I said the name of one. The guard checked my ticket and could see I hadn’t gone through the barrier at the station so then asked where I had actually come from. I told him the truth and when he asked why I said I’d completely forgotten to buy a ticket. Obviously this doesn’t excuse buying a shorter ticket. The guard asked me to open my Trainline app and then instructed me to press this and that until we got to my purchase history (I wasn’t aware this even existed). There he could see that I had paid for a short fare a few days before and then prior to that full fares. He took a screenshot of this. (I felt tricked into doing this and also knew things had got more serious).The guard was taking lots of notes and I thought I was going to be issued a fine but I was actually issued with a Report for prosecution receipt.

My usual station doesn’t have a barrier and I have paid for a shorter fare habitually over the last year and four months - I do genuinely forget to buy one often until I’m further into the train journey, as I’m often in a rush and have a million things going on that I need to think about. (But as I say, this does not excuse anything, and I have avoided fares purposely). This has not been for every journey, but each time saving a cost of approximately £10. (When thinking about it now, what a ridiculous thing to do. I have been a bit stressed about the cost of the trains - even though I am reasonably well off; the stress about money is because of trying to save rather than survival, so again is absolutely no excuse).

I realise there may be a lot of judgement towards me about this and I accept how utterly stupid I have been. I am not expecting sympathy or forgiveness but would like advice on how best to get through this without resulting in jail/ court or a criminal offence. Do you think this is possible? I am so ashamed I haven’t been able to tell my husband or anyone else. I feel sick to the stomach of anyone I love (or colleagues etc) knowing what I have done and embarrassing them.

Is it true that the rail company can look through your purchase history on Trainline without asking? Is there history of cases like mine previously and do you know what the outcome has been? I don’t want to try and avoid paying a fine, just going to jail or ending up in court. How big a fine do you think it would be for me? And is pleading guilty the best way? I have not yet received the letter and know this can take some time. (Is it true this can be up to 6 months?)

Since this incident I have of course paid full fares and will never not do so again. I have never done anything like this before, or been involved in any other criminal activity, and this is something that I am feeling huge regret for. And, not that this excuses anything, but I had thought a fine was the worst that could happen for fate evasion, I had no idea this could result in court/ jail.

Any advice would be most welcome.

 

[bagels]

Hello. I’m in a similar situation to you, I posted about it on my page and some of the established experts on here have replied so that might be worth reading. Also if you go to the ‘Disputes & Prosections’ thread there’s tons of situations like this one you can read through. I can find you some and link them if you like? I just need to know what stations it was with and which rail company so I can find posts accustomed to you. Hope this helps!

 

[skyhigh]

You won't be going to prison.

Which train company was this? Some are more inclined to settle out of court than others.

Is it true that the rail company can look through your purchase history on Trainline without asking?

Yes. If they offer an out of court settlement, you can probably expect to pay the full Anytime Day Single for each journey you evaded the fare plus an admin fee of around £100-150 on top. If you have been doing this for 16 months then you should expect it's going to be a large amount.

 

[denim14]

Hello. I’m in a similar situation to you, I posted about it on my page and some of the established experts on here have replied so that might be worth reading. Also if you go to the ‘Disputes & Prosections’ thread there’s tons of situations like this one you can read through. I can find you some and link them if you like? I just need to know what stations it was with and which rail company so I can find posts accustomed to you. Hope this helps!

Thank you so much, it would be extremely useful to have the links. The station I travel from is Sunningdale (South Western Railway), going to Vauxhall. The station I claimed to be travelling from was Clapham Junction.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Apr 2024 ==

You won't be going to prison.

Which train company was this? Some are more inclined to settle out of court than others.


Yes. If they offer an out of court settlement, you can probably expect to pay the full Anytime Day Single for each journey you evaded the fare plus an admin fee of around £100-150 on top. If you have been doing this for 16 months then you should expect it's going to be a large amount.

The company is South Western Railway. I have looked through my Trainline purchase history in more detail - it goes back to August 2022 and since then I have paid a short fare 45 times.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Apr 2024 ==

You won't be going to prison.

Which train company was this? Some are more inclined to settle out of court than others.


Yes. If they offer an out of court settlement, you can probably expect to pay the full Anytime Day Single for each journey you evaded the fare plus an admin fee of around £100-150 on top. If you have been doing this for 16 months then you should expect it's going to be a large amount.

Is the admin fee per evaded fare?

 

[bagels]

An anytime day single is £14.80 so assuming it was a return that’s £29.60 a day x 45 that’s £1332 plus their admin fee which for South Western Railway is £250 ish so that would be a total of £1,582 to settle outside of court. Unfortunately it’s an expensive amount however, you would be settling outside of court.

 

[denim14]

An anytime day single is £14.80 so assuming it was a return that’s £29.60 a day x 45 that’s £1332 plus their admin fee which for South Western Railway is £250 ish so that would be a total of £1,582 to settle outside of court. Unfortunately it’s an expensive amount however, you would be settling outside of court.

Thank you.

My major concern at this stage is being summoned to court or for an interview, and not being given the option to settle out of court because of it being done so many times. Whilst the money is a lot and certainly not insignificant to me, I would happily pay this to avoid it going further. Having read quite a few threads on this forum it does seem that sometimes people are called for interviews/ to court so I am very worried about that.

 

[bagels]

I am unsure how to link things on this forum but if you type in ‘fare evasion south western railway’ or ‘fare evasion swr’ similar situations should come up. Judging from reading many posts, I think the general process is first a letter and if you write it in the correct way you’re given the opportunity to settle. The company could potentially get less money by prosecuting you as they’d have to pay like £1000 in legal fees so I think an out of court settlement would be the generic way to do it as long as you comply and answer letters etc.

 

[denim14]

I am unsure how to link things on this forum but if you type in ‘fare evasion south western railway’ or ‘fare evasion swr’ similar situations should come up. Judging from reading many posts, I think the general process is first a letter and if you write it in the correct way you’re given the opportunity to settle. The company could potentially get less money by prosecuting you as they’d have to pay like £1000 in legal fees so I think an out of court settlement would be the generic way to do it as long as you comply and answer letters etc.

Thank you. I will take a look at the SWR posts.

 

[John R]

Is it true that the rail company can look through your purchase history on Trainline without asking?

Yes, they can (and will) ask Trainline (and maybe all other rail retailers too) for any information they have relating to you. They are able to do that if they are investigating a potential crime, and I would imagine that the retailers are required to respond as part of their terms of being an accredited rail ticket seller.

If you cooperate, are contrite and honest (preferably without recourse to an AI tool - they produce cringy over the top letters) when you get your letter then there is a very high likelihood that you will be offered a settlement to avoid court. It will cost you though - a lot more than if you had bought the correct ticket in the first place.

How much? Well if you use the Anytime Single fare for the journey (£14.80 Sunningdale to Vauxhall) for each individual journey you have shorted (ie twice for every day), and add £150 as an admin fee you've probably got an upper end to the likely offer. You'll have to pay it within 14 days, so make sure you have the means to pay when they contact you.

 

[denim14]

Yes, they can (and will) ask Trainline (and maybe all other rail retailers too) for any information they have relating to you. They are able to do that if they are investigating a potential crime, and I would imagine that the retailers are required to respond as part of their terms of being an accredited rail ticket seller.

If you cooperate, are contrite and honest (preferably without recourse to an AI tool - they produce cringy over the top letters) when you get your letter then there is a very high likelihood that you will be offered a settlement to avoid court. It will cost you though - a lot more than if you had bought the correct ticket in the first place.

How much? Well if you use the Anytime Single fare for the journey (£14.80 Sunningdale to Vauxhall) for each individual journey you have shorted (ie twice for every day), and add £150 as an admin fee you've probably got an upper end to the likely offer. You'll have to pay it within 14 days, so make sure you have the means to pay when they contact you.

Thank you for your response, it’s much appreciated.

 

[Krokodil]

The station I travel from is Sunningdale (South Western Railway), going to Vauxhall. The station I claimed to be travelling from was Clapham Junction.

This will have attracted the suspicion of the inspector. Almost anyone who was genuinely making such a journey would have used contactless.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Is it true that the rail company can look through your purchase history on Trainline without asking? Is there history of cases like mine previously and do you know what the outcome has been? I don’t want to try and avoid paying a fine, just going to jail or ending up in court. How big a fine do you think it would be for me? And is pleading guilty the best way? I have not yet received the letter and know this can take some time. (Is it true this can be up to 6 months?)

For the sake of you and anyone else looking at this thread ... you must assume that any transaction (and anything else) done on-line is always recorded and potentially traceable. This is usually apparent in the small print of any on-line service you access... though of course no-one reads that stuff.

In this specific context - once something potentially criminal is involved, whatever (only theoretical anyway) privacy there was goes out of the window; information has to be shared in cases like this.

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

SWR take quite a robust approach to this sort of thing, although they do normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with their investigation.

We have seen examples where they want to interview the person to establish the scale of fare evasion before offering an out of court settlement, although we have also seen examples where a settlement has been offered without any initial letter. Of course we cannot guarantee that you will be offered a settlement, SWR are entitled to prosecute you should they wish to do so - if you are offered a settlement many people would question how serious the level of evasion would need to be to get prosecuted.

SWR will write to you in the coming weeks, this can take a couple of months to arrive if they are researching online purchases. Once you receive this letter then post a redacted copy of it in this thread and forum members will be able to advise how best to proceed.

 

[denim14]

Welcome to the forum!

SWR take quite a robust approach to this sort of thing, although they do normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with their investigation.

We have seen examples where they want to interview the person to establish the scale of fare evasion before offering an out of court settlement, although we have also seen examples where a settlement has been offered without any initial letter. Of course we cannot guarantee that you will be offered a settlement, SWR are entitled to prosecute you should they wish to do so - if you are offered a settlement many people would question how serious the level of evasion would need to be to get prosecuted.

SWR will write to you in the coming weeks, this can take a couple of months to arrive if they are researching online purchases. Once you receive this letter then post a redacted copy of it in this thread and forum members will be able to advise how best to proceed.

Thank you for this. I understand the seriousness of it and the thought of going to court is making me ill. I am currently investigating seeking legal advice from a solicitor.

 

[denim14]

Thank you for this. I understand the seriousness of it and the thought of going to court is making me ill. I am currently investigating seeking legal advice from a solicitor.

Also, are you aware of cases that have gone to court and resulted in a criminal conviction?

 

[John R]

Also, are you aware of cases that have gone to court and resulted in a criminal conviction?

It's our experience here that if you cooperate, are honest and contrite, you will very likely be offered an out of court settlement. We can't guarantee that you won't be taken to court, but it does appear to be very much the exception of the cases we offer advice to (with the exception of TfL, which you are not dealing with).

We've seen some cases where the extent of fraud is such that the feeling is "well if not this case, when?" where a settlement has been offered,, albeit for a substantial four figure sum. Only you will know how many times you have done this of course.