Pre court settlement offer letter received - Needing advice.

[Omelette]

Hello,

I am writing because I have received a Pre court settlement offer email yesterday from GWR as i have been made aware that I have taken 13 rail journeys while my railcard was mistakenly out of date. The dates of these dates are between 08/04/2023 to 18/04/2025. The total amount that they are asking me to pay to avoid going to court is £508 including £110 "recovery cost"

In this offer it has stated :

"Not paying your full and correct fare is illegal under S5(3) of the Regulation of Railways Act (1889) and/or Byelaw 18(1) of the Railway Byelaws.
Furthermore, making a false representation by presenting tickets with a railcard discount when you do not hold a valid Railcard is a criminal offence of Fraud by False Representation under Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006."

From what I have seen from my own research here, the Magistrates' Courts Act of 1980, Section 127 states that this has to be brought to my attention and a complaint must be made before 6 months of the alleged offence.

In the pre court settlement offer letter it clearly states that the alleged offence was on the 18/04/25 and this was sent to me yesterday 20/05/26 - 13 months.

Additionally, in terms of the Fraud charge this only seems to be with "Intent to make gain and that it is knowingly untrue and misleading" which it certainly isn't as I had no idea that this was not in date and bought another one as soon as I found this out.

I am writing to see if there is anything I can do as I really do not have £508 spare and would like any way to dispute this to or even ideally have the case dismissed.

Thanks in advance for all of your help!

 

[Tetchytyke]

Were you stopped on any of those dates?

They can only bring a prosecution on Regulation of Railways Act or the Railway Byelaws within six months of the offence taking place. If the offence is more than six months ago, they can't prosecute under those offences.

They can prosecute under the Fraud Act for up to six years, but in order to do so they need to prove that you knew it was out-of-date when you used the railcard and that you acted dishonestly in presenting it anyway. This is a high bar.

So it depends on your risk appetite here. £508 makes it all go away. But my opinion is that they can't prosecute you for railway offences and it would be very difficult to prove fraud.

I would probably simply ignore the email. If you weren't stopped, I would definitely ignore the email.

 

[Omelette]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply,

So I was stopped on 18/04/2025 as the ticket inspector asked to see my ticket and my railcard and he told me that the railcard had expired. I was immediately apologising and bought one in front of him as I had no idea it was out of date at all. None of the times before this was I stopped by any inspector.

Thanks again

 

[Tetchytyke]

So I was stopped on 18/04/2025 as the ticket inspector asked to see my ticket and my railcard and he told me that the railcard had expired.

So they can prove that offence. The other instances have, one presumes, been identified by GWR as a result of them trawling back through your purchase history. They probably can't prove these to the criminal standard.

But they're out of time to bring a charge under RoRA or the Byelaws. This doesn't stop them bringing a charge under the Fraud Act, but unless you told the ticket inspector that you knew the railcard was out of date then they will struggle to prove fraud by false representation. For it to be fraud you needed to know it was out of date and you needed to have dishonestly tried to use it anyway.

It also doesn't stop them bringing a civil claim.

But I would stand by my advice- file the email, but ignore it. They're out of time.

 

[Omelette]

Thank you again, this is so reassuring!

In terms of going forward, I am a little hesitant to ignore the email as they may instigate another letter or some further action.

Would you suggest that I email a response and just state what you have mentioned above politely and state that I certainly did not do this intentionally?

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you again, this is so reassuring!

In terms of going forward, I am a little hesitant to ignore the email as they may instigate another letter or some further action.

Would you suggest that I email a response and just state what you have mentioned above politely and state that I certainly did not do this intentionally?

No

Don’t do anything until you have read further advice and looked at some similar cases with detailed advice on this sort of scenario so you can weigh up which course of action to take and any potential risks to you if the different options available. We can post links to those cases here for you.

By after the bank holiday you will have enough information to make an informed choice if what you wish to do.

 

[Puffing Devil]

You have three options now, all with different risk/reward/peace of mind outcomes.

1. Ignore the email. GWR are out of time to prosecute under the Byelaws or RoRA due to the 6-month limit for those charges. A Fraud Act charge requires proving dishonesty, which they cannot do for an oversight where you bought a new card immediately. Ignoring them is tactically the strongest option because you lose absolutely no legal advantage by remaining silent. If GWR did defy the odds and launch a civil county court claim for £508, your legal position would be identical to what it is now, but they would have to do all the heavy lifting to prove the 13 historic journeys without any written help or admissions from you. Furthermore, experienced forum contributors note that GWR keeps its revenue protection internal and does not have a track record of passing outstanding out-of-court settlement offers onto commercial debt collectors.
2. Reply with a minimal, formal counteroffer. State that criminal prosecution under RoRA or the Byelaws is time-barred by S127 of the MCA 1980, and that the Fraud Act 2006 does not apply as there was no dishonest intent. Offer to pay only the single fare difference for 18/04/2025 as a goodwill gesture, rejecting the 12 historic journeys and the £110 fee. The severe risk here is that offering to pay acts as a written admission that you travelled with an invalid ticket. GWR can pocket that admission as proof of a contract breach, reject your offer, and aggressively pursue you for the full £508 debt with a much stronger civil case.
3. Pay the £508 in full. This is the most expensive route, but it guarantees instant peace of mind and stops all future correspondence if you want to avoid any ongoing stress.
   

It's down to your personal circumstances, appetite for risk and funds.

 

[WesternLancer]

Ref my post #6 above I'll post a link to another thread which is worth you looking at

But I see Puffing Devil has now given an excellent summary of your options in post #7 to help you think about your next steps.

If you do decide to contact them then I would suggest that anything you intend to send them is posted up in draft here so that people can check it for you before you send it to them.

As you have established, GWR would have been in a different position if they had acted promptly (within 6 months) of the report of your invalid ticket sent to their back office by the front line staff - had they done that they would have you 'over a barrel' over the sum concerned - 'pay us this or we will bring a criminal prosecution' - that they failed to do so means they are trying another route - which is something we have seen them start to do over the last 6 to 10 months on the forum - but we have not seen that many cases, and none through to their ultimate conclusion unfortunately, as people seem not to have updated us.

There has been one recently however, so if you have a read of that - and also the other cases that are linked within it, you will see the advice that has been given (albeit relevant to particular aspects of each scenario).

Hopefully over the bank holiday weekend this will give you enough information for you to make an informed view of your next steps

But if you have any thought so or queries post them here and no doubt people will answer them with information and advice.

as i say - see this thread and also the threads linked within it
eg on post #3

Expired railcard 1 and a half years ago

Over a year and a bit ago a GWR inspector found I was travelling with a ticket that required a railcard and upon checking my railcard I discovered it was expired and it was a honest mistake. GWR sent me a letter and email this week with a Pre-Court Settlement offer to pay the price of the...

www.railforums.co.uk