How long does a letter usually take to arrive?

[CDalton]

Back in August I was caught at Moorgate station with an undated carnet ticket. This isn’t something I make a habit of (in fact, while I was fishing for my ticket, I pulled out a wad of used, correctly dated, carnet tickets from the previous week, which the inspector confiscated - but rather than being incriminating they ought to work in my favour, if they were retained). However, on this day, for various reasons it was all a bit fraught and hectic and I was in a rush out of the house, and they didn’t have barriers at the station on the way in (which would have prompted me to get out my ticket and realise my error) and thus I ended up boarding with the undated ticket.

It’s been causing me no end of stress and worry ever since, especially as I really have very little spare cash, meaning it would be no trivial thing for me to manage to agree a settlement that would both me agreeable to the train company and which I would be capable of paying up front, and every day since I have been checking the mail anxiously to see if a letter has arrived.

Anyway, the main thing I’m wondering is how long should I expect to wait for a letter. It’s been over two months now – is this usual? Are there ever circumstances in which it would for whatever reason be dropped? At what point can I reasonably conclude that if I’ve not heard anything yet then I probably never will? I’d love to be able to stop worrying about it so I’d be really grateful if someone could give me an indication of how long after the incident I can start to relax again. (I’m guessing that a bit over two months isn’t long enough – but I must admit that I’d expected to hear something by now.)

 

[najaB]

Anyway, the main thing I’m wondering is how long should I expect to wait for a letter. It’s been over two months now – is this usual? Are there ever circumstances in which it would for whatever reason be dropped? At what point can I reasonably conclude that if I’ve not heard anything yet then I probably never will? I’d love to be able to stop worrying about it so I’d be really grateful if someone could give me an indication of how long after the incident I can start to relax again. (I’m guessing that a bit over two months isn’t long enough – but I must admit that I’d expected to hear something by now.)

They have up to six months to bring charges in the court, so you're not out of the woods yet unfortunately.

 

[CDalton]

Yeah, I realise that they have 6 months for that. I guess I'm asking how long, in practice, I could expect it to take before I first hear from them, assuming I do? For instance, of all the people who haven't heard anything within 3 months (for example), what percentage will likely still receive a letter at some point? (I realise we're likely into the realm of guesswork here, but I'm hoping people in this forum may at least have some direct experience to call on, even if anecdotal.)

Do they ever take the full 6 months, or even close to it, to make first contact? If they do take a while, is that indicative of anything in particular (good or bad) about the case?

I did hear someone say that if you haven't heard anything within a couple of month there's a decent chance you won't hear from them at all, but I have no idea how reliable that was.

 

[najaB]

Do they ever take the full 6 months, or even close to it, to make first contact? If they do take a while, is that indicative of anything in particular (good or bad) about the case?

Yes. No.

All it's indicative of is an understaffed (or overworked) prosecutions department.

 

[221129]

Another thing to bear in mind is that they do not have to write to you, although unlikely, the first contact you could receive is a summons.

 

[CDalton]

Further to this, it is now over six months since the incident described above - this means I can stop worrying about it, right?

Out of curiosity, what reasons could there be for not even sending a letter asking for an explanation? Could it be that the other (correctly dated and valid) tickets that were confiscated from me clearly showed that I typically do use the tickets properly and that therefore it was unlikely to have been an attempt to evade my fare on the occasion in question? Or could it be something as simple as a wrongly completed incident form or other type of admin error? Or something else?

 

[najaB]

Further to this, it is now over six months since the incident described above - this means I can stop worrying about it, right?

In all likelihood, yes. There's still the chance though that they have started proceedings but have your address incorrectly recorded.

Out of curiosity, what reasons could there be for not even sending a letter asking for an explanation? Could it be that the other (correctly dated and valid) tickets that were confiscated from me clearly showed that I typically do use the tickets properly and that therefore it was unlikely to have been an attempt to evade my fare on the occasion in question? Or could it be something as simple as a wrongly completed incident form or other type of admin error? Or something else?

It could be any of the above, or any number of other reasons.

 

[CDalton]

In all likelihood, yes. There's still the chance though that they have started proceedings but have your address incorrectly recorded.

Thanks, najaB. If I wanted to put my mind at rest that this is not the case, then is there a simple way of going about doing this, do you know?

And stupid question, but if it so happened that they had somehow recorded the address wrongly then is the prosecution actually valid? If they are prosecuting [Person X at Address Y] and no such entity actually exists (either because it is a non-existent address or no person of name X lives there) then is it still a legitimate prosecution?

 

[Clip]

Thanks, najaB. If I wanted to put my mind at rest that this is not the case, then is there a simple way of going about doing this, do you know?

And stupid question, but if it so happened that they had somehow recorded the address wrongly then is the prosecution actually valid? If they are prosecuting [Person X at Address Y] and no such entity actually exists (either because it is a non-existent address or no person of name X lives there) then is it still a legitimate prosecution?

You, as a human and a person who was not holding a valid ticket for their journey, still exist though.

A number/street name wrong does not make the offence null and void.