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Hi all, Today I was stopped by a guard while travelling from Mill Hill Broadway towards Three Bridges (then onward to Portsmouth & Southsea). I got a short ticket to Hendon but did have a ticket from Three Bridges to portsmouth. I was issued a witness statement receipt on 22/08/2025(today). When speaking with the inspector I was very anxious and mistakenly gave the wrong date of birth and said I started at Brent Cross West rather than Mill Hill Broadway. Obviously want to get this resolved as quickly as possible (paying whatever i need to), but im going to be in Malaysia for a year from early september, and looking through threads these things take a while. Should I be proactive and do something about it now or just wait?This is my first time being reported so I am abit scared. If they look through my history they might find a few of these short tickets. Any tips would help.
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Hi all,vvas stopped by a guard while travelling from Mill Hill Broadway towards Three Bridges (then onward to Portsmouth & Southsea). I got a short ticket to Hendon but did have a ticket from Three Bridges to portsmouth. I was issued a witness statement receipt on 22/08/2025(today). When speaking with the inspector I was very anxious and mistakenly gave the wrong date of birth and said I started at Brent Cross West rather than Mill Hill Broadway. Obviously want to get this resolved as quickly as possible (paying whatever i need to), but im going to be in Malaysia for a year from early september, and looking through threads these things take a while. Should I be proactive and do something about it now or just wait?This is my first time being reported so I am abit scared. If they look through my history they might find a few of these short tickets. Any tips would help.
Hi all, Today I was stopped by a guard while travelling from Mill Hill Broadway towards Three Bridges (then onward to Portsmouth & Southsea). I got a short ticket to Hendon but did have a ticket from Three Bridges to portsmouth. I was issued a witness statement receipt on 22/08/2025(today). When speaking with the inspector I was very anxious and mistakenly gave the wrong date of birth and said I started at Brent Cross West rather than Mill Hill Broadway. Obviously want to get this resolved as quickly as possible (paying whatever i need to), but im going to be in Malaysia for a year from early september, and looking through threads these things take a while. Should I be proactive and do something about it now or just wait?This is my first time being reported so I am abit scared. If they look through my history they might find a few of these short tickets. Any tips would help.
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I have drafted a letter of this which i would post here but do you think I should wait for the NIP?
Welcome
You need to wait until you hear from them (more on that later) - they won't even have loaded your case on to the system and also you don't know what they will be asking you - tho the standard letter from them is likely in due course - but that could easily be weeks away.
I assume this is GTR (Govia Thameslink railway)?
Clearly what you did is fare evasion and they could take you to court for it and you would be found guilty as you were caught 'red handed' I assume.
Having said that GTR are regularly prepared to settle out of court for people who engage with them and convinced them they have learned a lesson and won't be doing this in future. Plenty of example on other thread of how to go about that
But they key to this is receiving the letter they will send you (almost certainly in hard copy post) and responding to it. That is vital if you want to avoid things escalating to prosecution.
Now it's possible that they might just forget about you - but frankly that is unlikely
What is certain is that if you do not respond it them it will automatically escalate to court, you will be found guilty of fare evasion, you will get fined and receive a criminal record, court bailiffs will eventually seek to enforce the fine by which time the sum will have increased significantly. Untangling that after the event and esp from overseas will be time consuming and expensive
So in practical terms the main issue you face is your soon departure for Malaysia preventing you getting their letter
Getting your post redirected to Malaysia by Royal Mail is a possibility, but I suspect it's not 100% reliable and it is probably slow. When they write to you they require a reply in circa 14 days from the date of their letter.
So when you move abroad will a trusted person be able to check your post, open it, scan anything and e-mail you it?
Or will you have other reliable arrangements in place?
Things are made less easy in that GTR do not accept mitigation responses (which is what you will need to send) by e-mail as a general rule. But they do accept change of address info by e-mail
So what I suggest you do is that if you have not heard from them a short time before you go abroad I would e-mail them (this needs to be their Revenue protection team, not customer services)
with a short note that says nothing more than the ref number from the witness statement (and enclose / attach a copy of it) along with a note saying
eg 'I was questioned on the train on x date in relation to my ticket.
On x date I am moving abroad and my postal address in Malaysia will be. I can also be contacted by e-mail about this matter and it would be preferable if you can use e-mail to contact me so that I can answer any questions relating to this and co-operate with your investigation'
This is timeline from another case to give you the idea of what may happen
- the person (OP) was stopped on or around 1 Nov 2024
- The OP got the letter from GTR / Thameslink on 21 Jan 2025
- The OP replied to that letter around 24 Jan 2025
- The OP was offered an Out of Court settlement and paid it on 12 March
Here are contact details for GTR if you need to write to them before they write to you (ie ref address details) - copied from letters on other threads on the forum
GTR – Thameslink / Southern / Gatwick Express / Great Northern
Their address is Prosecutions Department, Govia Thameslink Railway, Eastside Offices, Kings Cross Railway Station, London N1C 4AX.
Here is an e-mail address for them that might be of help to you to inform them of your new postal address
email: gtr.prosecutions@gtrailway.com – This mailbox cannot be used to appeal or request settlements according to auto replies others have quoted on the forum
Hey,
Thanks for this. I do have someone who could take it on behalf of me, but will probably shoot them an email closer to the time. Thanks for letting me know,
Hey,
Thanks for this. I do have someone who could take it on behalf of me, but will probably shoot them an email closer to the time. Thanks for letting me know,
Good plan - both things a good idea to ensure this letter isn't missed
In the meantime you can prepare by:
- looking at other GTR threads to see how things typically play out, the letters they send etc and the advice given here on how to reply to get the least worst outcome you can
- privately search your own line ticket purchases to look for other instances of ticket buying that may look suspicious to them - they may well do thsi anyway so it will help you prepare for the sums they may ask you for
when you get their letter you can head back here for advice
We are aware of an issue with emails from the Forum to Microsoft-based email accounts (hotmail/outlook/live.com email addresses). This is being looked into currently, thanks for your patience meanwhile.
