Pretty terrified SWR Prosecution

[sillyidiot]

Hi, I’ll try to keep this as brief as I can.

I was researching prices on the Trainline app for a friend who had a 26-30 railcard. A few days later, I had to book a ticket from Gillingham (Dorset) in haste, minutes before my train (new baby and preparing my husband to spend the day alone with him for the first time). Unfortunately the app retained the railcard setting. The officer when checking my ticket asked me for my railcard and I said “oh that expired a long time ago” and he said well you have it applied to your ticket… he then said he was sorry he had to give me a prosecution notice. I had a panic attack almost instantly and I’m not sure what really happened, but I gave my name and my address but gave completely the wrong birth year (1988 instead of 1991?!). On the prosecution notice it says “Discount not entitled (no railcard)”
Anyway, the past year, I’ve been on the train a few times but always paid full fares and some even first class fares. But here’s where things get tricky…

Coming out of covid, I hadn’t been able to work the entire time and wasn’t eligible for furlough. Two cars had failed me and I had lost all of my savings. I couldn’t pay my mortgage. I was being offered work, but I couldn’t afford to get to work with full train fares as my 26-30 railcard ran out in May 2022. Someone in my profession said “I can get you a railcard” and applied for one on my Trainline app and apparently fiddled with my ID numbers. I’m not sure how they did it but their justification was “everyone is doing it” so, I was able to get to work and make a small amount of money on top. I used this “railcard” for 2 years.

I’m terrified that SWR are going to look back into my history and see this.

I am so ashamed I got myself into this position and I had never ever considered the repercussions. I am so ashamed of my dishonesty. I am so worried that I’ll be sent to prison and not be able to be with my baby. What do I do?

Will they look almost certainly look years back into my history?

 

[Egg Centric]

Will they look almost certainly look years back into my history?

Maybe. But you're not going to prison. Relax. Worst case scenario is that this is going to be expensive.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Welcome to the forum.

All you can do is wait for a letter to arrive in the post. Then come back here with the details and the experts will assist you. It may be a few weeks before SWR write to you

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi, I’ll try to keep this as brief as I can.

I was researching prices on the Trainline app for a friend who had a 26-30 railcard. A few days later, I had to book a ticket from Gillingham (Dorset) in haste, minutes before my train (new baby and preparing my husband to spend the day alone with him for the first time). Unfortunately the app retained the railcard setting. The officer when checking my ticket asked me for my railcard and I said “oh that expired a long time ago” and he said well you have it applied to your ticket… he then said he was sorry he had to give me a prosecution notice. I had a panic attack almost instantly and I’m not sure what really happened, but I gave my name and my address but gave completely the wrong birth year (1988 instead of 1991?!). On the prosecution notice it says “Discount not entitled (no railcard)”
Anyway, the past year, I’ve been on the train a few times but always paid full fares and some even first class fares. But here’s where things get tricky…

Coming out of covid, I hadn’t been able to work the entire time and wasn’t eligible for furlough. Two cars had failed me and I had lost all of my savings. I couldn’t pay my mortgage. I was being offered work, but I couldn’t afford to get to work with full train fares as my 26-30 railcard ran out in May 2022. Someone in my profession said “I can get you a railcard” and applied for one on my Trainline app and apparently fiddled with my ID numbers. I’m not sure how they did it but their justification was “everyone is doing it” so, I was able to get to work and make a small amount of money on top. I used this “railcard” for 2 years.

I’m terrified that SWR are going to look back into my history and see this.

I am so ashamed I got myself into this position and I had never ever considered the repercussions. I am so ashamed of my dishonesty. I am so worried that I’ll be sent to prison and not be able to be with my baby. What do I do?

Will they look almost certainly look years back into my history?

Yes. They will look back into your purchasing history. Probably up to 6 years worth.
Then they will seek you to pay for all the tickets you didn’t pay correctly for.
You will get help on how to handle this from here.

One vital thing now is do NOT try to delete your ticket buying account because that puts you at a big disadvantage and they can still access your details anyway but you will have no way to check what they might allege you have done.

All you can do now is to try and make a financial plan to pay them the sort of sum involved. It could be some months before it gets to payment time however.

 

[sillyidiot]

Thanks all, I really appreciate it. I got my entire Trainline history and there are 128 tickets for SWR between May 2022 and Dec 2024. Some very short journeys ie Clapham to Waterloo (not short faring, I worked at these two locations). I feel like I’m probably going to have a criminal record.. Is there any way of avoiding this or do I just have to admit defeat?
Thankfully I’m in a position now where I can pay a fine, depending on how huge it is…. Feel so stupid and ashamed.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks all, I really appreciate it. I got my entire Trainline history and there are 128 tickets for SWR between May 2022 and Dec 2024. Some very short journeys ie Clapham to Waterloo (not short faring, I worked at these two locations). I feel like I’m probably going to have a criminal record.. Is there any way of avoiding this or do I just have to admit defeat?
Thankfully I’m in a position now where I can pay a fine, depending on how huge it is…. Feel so stupid and ashamed.

Just keep co operating and it won’t go to court. This can't be guaranteed but it's highly unlikely - they would rather you paid them what they believe you owe than prosecute you - which takes them more time and trouble (and therefore cost) that coming to an agreement with you to pay what you owe.

If you had legit reason to travel Clapham to Waterloo then you can say so but it would probably help to append evidence eg record of employment / contract at organisation with business addresses in those two places that you can show them. They might accept that. Needs to be convincing obviously. I suppose for that sort of journey they might usually expect people to pay with Oyster of Contactless (I think it's cheaper than buying a ticket eg an on line ticket) - but if it is legitimate then you can say that - up to them if they want to believe you or not - for example would your digital ticket for those journeys have been scanned in and out of the barriers at those stations? If not then they will start to think it's not the truth. Just do not lie about anything as that is when it starts to unravel when people lie.

Have they written to you yet?

 

[sillyidiot]

Just keep co operating and it won’t go to court.

If you had legit reason to travel Clapham to Waterloo then say so but it would help to append evidence eg record of employment at organisation with business addresses in those two places. They might accept that. Needs to be convincing obviously.

Have they written to you yet?

I really appreciate this, thank you. No they haven’t written. Will let you know when. I have proof of employment addresses, so will submit that if/when they ask. Thanks so much!

 

[WesternLancer]

I really appreciate this, thank you. No they haven’t written. Will let you know when. I have proof of employment addresses, so will submit that if/when they ask. Thanks so much!

OK - so what you can do now is stuff like:

- check your buying history and make your private list : ticked off
- save funds to pay what you might be asked for : ticked off
- look at other SWR thread on the forum
- is there anything you can do with your travel ticket buying that you can say to them in your reply that you have done to prevent the situation happening again? - if so do that - obv some of this depends on your travel patterns but things that might be relevant would be - eg buy a season ticket / switch to a different ticket retailer that does not default to discounted fares after it's been used on one occasion - stuff like that (ie something you can actively say to them you have done to prevent what happened before happening again) - so they know you have learned from this situation and acted on it.

 

[AlterEgo]

Someone in my profession said “I can get you a railcard” and applied for one on my Trainline app and apparently fiddled with my ID numbers. I’m not sure how they did it but their justification was “everyone is doing it” so, I was able to get to work and make a small amount of money on top. I used this “railcard” for 2 years.

This is a well known fraud where people entered fraudulent driving licence numbers (the date of birth is encoded into your driver number) as proof of "age". It may well be there is a reckoning down the line for people who did this but either way SWR are not going to find out about this and they will be more concerned about things like:

Some very short journeys ie Clapham to Waterloo (not short faring, I worked at these two locations)

So you will need to evidence that your employer made you travel these short distances because this is classic short faring territory. Your work expenses will probably be sufficient to prove this, so do a trawl of your emails and documents and attach those with any email you send them.