Railcard ticket purchased by mistake

[TTwig]

Good morning!

I'm looking for some advice regarding my current situation. I've received a notice of intended prosecution from Chiltern rail for a journey I took in July, where I mistakenly purchased a railcard ticket without a railcard. The ticket inspector pointed this out to me, and you can imagine the rest. I've looked through some similar threads on here and seen the general best practice is to write a letter apologising for this offence and ask for leniency.

I'd appreciate it if you would look over my letter and share any advice you may have, I'd really like to avoid this going to court.

Please see below my current draft of the letter

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for granting me the opportunity to reply to your "Notice of intended prosecution" sent on the 4th of October 2024, with reference *REDACTED*, regarding an incident that occurred on Saturday 13th of July 2024.

On the 13th of July, I purchased a return ticket from Haddenham & Thame parkway to Oxford using the trainline app. I was aware that I did not possess a railcard as I rarely travel by train and did not renew the railcard I once had in 2020. I did not intend to use a railcard for this journey, however I purchased the ticket hastily and failed to notice the app had automatically applied my expired railcard to the journey, carelessly missing the opportunity to remove this option.

Upon boarding the train and presenting my ticket to the inspector, I was informed that I had purchased a railcard ticket without a valid railcard. I apologised to the inspector and cooperated with providing my personal information.

I would like to sincerely apologise for my carelessness and would never seek to evade paying the appropriate fare for my journey. To ensure this does not happen again I have removed my expired railcard from my app and will check every ticket purchase carefully to confirm I am paying the appropriate fare.

I understand the severity of this incident, as well as the costs. I have learnt an important lesson from this and would appreciate consideration of this very unfortunate and honest mistake.

I will cooperate fully with any further steps, and I would appreciate it if yourselves would consider settling this matter out of court. I am prepared to pay the appropriate fare and any administrative costs in dealing with the case.

Yours sincerely,
**END OF LETTER**

Please also see attached a copy of the letter.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially since the letter mentions they have discovered other occasions where the same may have occurred? I travel by train very rarely, and such cannot remember a time since my railcard expired that I have even used a train service.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Good morning!

I'm looking for some advice regarding my current situation. I've received a notice of intended prosecution from Chiltern rail for a journey I took in July, where I mistakenly purchased a railcard ticket without a railcard. The ticket inspector pointed this out to me, and you can imagine the rest. I've looked through some similar threads on here and seen the general best practice is to write a letter apologising for this offence and ask for leniency.

I'd appreciate it if you would look over my letter and share any advice you may have, I'd really like to avoid this going to court.

Please see below my current draft of the letter

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for granting me the opportunity to reply to your "Notice of intended prosecution" sent on the 4th of October 2024, with reference *REDACTED*, regarding an incident that occurred on Saturday 13th of July 2024.

On the 13th of July, I purchased a return ticket from Haddenham & Thame parkway to Oxford using the trainline app. I was aware that I did not possess a railcard as I rarely travel by train and did not renew the railcard I once had in 2020. I did not intend to use a railcard for this journey, however I purchased the ticket hastily and failed to notice the app had automatically applied my expired railcard to the journey, carelessly missing the opportunity to remove this option.

Upon boarding the train and presenting my ticket to the inspector, I was informed that I had purchased a railcard ticket without a valid railcard. I apologised to the inspector and cooperated with providing my personal information.

I would like to sincerely apologise for my carelessness and would never seek to evade paying the appropriate fare for my journey. To ensure this does not happen again I have removed my expired railcard from my app and will check every ticket purchase carefully to confirm I am paying the appropriate fare.

I understand the severity of this incident, as well as the costs. I have learnt an important lesson from this and would appreciate consideration of this very unfortunate and honest mistake.

I will cooperate fully with any further steps, and I would appreciate it if yourselves would consider settling this matter out of court. I am prepared to pay the appropriate fare and any administrative costs in dealing with the case.

Yours sincerely,
**END OF LETTER**

Please also see attached a copy of the letter.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially since the letter mentions they have discovered other occasions where the same may have occurred? I travel by train very rarely, and such cannot remember a time since my railcard expired that I have even used a train service.

That looks fine to me. As you have been given a 14 day deadline to reply or go to court, this shows that you're willing to enter into a discussion - which is what Chiltern have asked you to do.

I think that the most likely outcome is that Chiltern will write back offering you the chance to settle the matter out of court for the train fare you should have paid, plus an 'admin charge' of maybe £150. But as you say, Chiltern have mentioned previous occasions which you don't recall. This could mean that they have sent you a piece of standard text (which from our point of view is interesting, as we've interpreted the wording to mean exactly what it says i.e. that they have done some further research and actually found something out: if it's just boilerplate text then we might want to start advising people to respond robustly to it) or it could be that they have (rightly or wrongly) found something. So it's possible that Chiltern's response will be something like 'but what about the previous trips?' In that case, I'd suggest that you come back to us for further comment, depending on what information Chiltern have provided or seem prepared to provide.

 

[TTwig]

That looks fine to me. As you have been given a 14 day deadline to reply or go to court, this shows that you're willing to enter into a discussion - which is what Chiltern have asked you to do.

I think that the most likely outcome is that Chiltern will write back offering you the chance to settle the matter out of court for the train fare you should have paid, plus an 'admin charge' of maybe £150. But as you say, Chiltern have mentioned previous occasions which you don't recall. This could mean that they have sent you a piece of standard text (which from our point of view is interesting, as we've interpreted the wording to mean exactly what it says i.e. that they have done some further research and actually found something out: if it's just boilerplate text then we might want to start advising people to respond robustly to it) or it could be that they have (rightly or wrongly) found something. So it's possible that Chiltern's response will be something like 'but what about the previous trips?' In that case, I'd suggest that you come back to us for further comment, depending on what information Chiltern have provided or seem prepared to provide.

Thank you for your response, I'll send this email now and keep you updated on its progress

 

[WesternLancer]

Good morning!

I'm looking for some advice regarding my current situation. I've received a notice of intended prosecution from Chiltern rail for a journey I took in July, where I mistakenly purchased a railcard ticket without a railcard. The ticket inspector pointed this out to me, and you can imagine the rest. I've looked through some similar threads on here and seen the general best practice is to write a letter apologising for this offence and ask for leniency.

I'd appreciate it if you would look over my letter and share any advice you may have, I'd really like to avoid this going to court.

Please see below my current draft of the letter

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for granting me the opportunity to reply to your "Notice of intended prosecution" sent on the 4th of October 2024, with reference *REDACTED*, regarding an incident that occurred on Saturday 13th of July 2024.

On the 13th of July, I purchased a return ticket from Haddenham & Thame parkway to Oxford using the trainline app. I was aware that I did not possess a railcard as I rarely travel by train and did not renew the railcard I once had in 2020. I did not intend to use a railcard for this journey, however I purchased the ticket hastily and failed to notice the app had automatically applied my expired railcard to the journey, carelessly missing the opportunity to remove this option.

Upon boarding the train and presenting my ticket to the inspector, I was informed that I had purchased a railcard ticket without a valid railcard. I apologised to the inspector and cooperated with providing my personal information.

I would like to sincerely apologise for my carelessness and would never seek to evade paying the appropriate fare for my journey. To ensure this does not happen again I have removed my expired railcard from my app and will check every ticket purchase carefully to confirm I am paying the appropriate fare.

I understand the severity of this incident, as well as the costs. I have learnt an important lesson from this and would appreciate consideration of this very unfortunate and honest mistake.

I will cooperate fully with any further steps, and I would appreciate it if yourselves would consider settling this matter out of court. I am prepared to pay the appropriate fare and any administrative costs in dealing with the case.

Yours sincerely,
**END OF LETTER**

Please also see attached a copy of the letter.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially since the letter mentions they have discovered other occasions where the same may have occurred? I travel by train very rarely, and such cannot remember a time since my railcard expired that I have even used a train service.

Hi and welcome
Your draft letter looks OK - but if you have a little time before the deadline for response you could perhaps wait eg 24 hours before sending it to see if others here make good suggestions - if posting it you would could then still make the mid morning Saturday last post collections (if posting it get a tracked postal service from a post office so you know and have proof it has been delivered).

One thing to think about adding:

- it looks like they have detected other tickets where the railcard has been applied and you say that expired in 2020 - so a good while back. I think you need to -re-assure them that this is not a pattern of deliberate evasion. If you don't use the train often can you check your end (eg with your trainline account) to see what trips / how many tickets this may apply to (keep those records for yourself). You could ask them if they can supply you with a list of the other instances so that you can check them perhaps, as they are going to want money for those fares if they offer a settlement

eg perhaps add a section to your reply along these lines (though this must not be a lie):

I note your records indicate this erroneous application of the Railcard discount may have happened on other occasions, since the expiry of my Railcard. Please be assured these must be as a result of the same error on my part, as I have not intended to deliberately pay incorrect fares. I rarely travel by train, but if you are able to supply a list of tickets where you think this has happened I will do my best to check my records in the interests of helping resolve any potential problems in respect of this.

or some such wording - to my my mind this shows a desire to co-operate with them which often seems to be the key to obtaining an out of court settlement, which is probably your best outcome.

 

[TTwig]

Hi and welcome
Your draft letter looks OK - but if you have a little time before the deadline for response you could perhaps wait eg 24 hours before sending it to see if others here make good suggestions - if posting it you would could then still make the mid morning Saturday last post collections (if posting it get a tracked postal service from a post office so you know and have proof it has been delivered).

One thing to think about adding:

- it looks like they have detected other tickets where the railcard has been applied and you say that expired in 2020 - so a good while back. I think you need to -re-assure them that this is not a pattern of deliberate evasion. If you don't use the train often can you check your end (eg with your trainline account) to see what trips / how many tickets this may apply to (keep those records for yourself). You could ask them if they can supply you with a list of the other instances so that you can check them perhaps, as they are going to want money for those fares if they offer a settlement

eg perhaps add a section to your reply along these lines (though this must not be a lie):

I note your records indicate this erroneous application of the Railcard discount may have happened on other occasions, since the expiry of my Railcard. Please be assured these must be as a result of the same error on my part, as I have not intended to deliberately pay incorrect fares. I rarely travel by train, but if you are able to supply a list of tickets where you think this has happened I will do my best to check my records in the interests of helping resolve any potential problems in respect of this.

or some such wording - to my my mind this shows a desire to co-operate with them which often seems to be the key to obtaining an out of court settlement, which is probably your best outcome.

Thanks, this advice is greatly appreciated, I was considering writing something very similar and you have articulated it very well so thank you for this.

 

[Haywain]

eg perhaps add a section to your reply along these lines (though this must not be a lie):

I note your records indicate this erroneous application of the Railcard discount may have happened on other occasions, since the expiry of my Railcard. Please be assured these must be as a result of the same error on my part, as I have not intended to deliberately pay incorrect fares. I rarely travel by train, but if you are able to supply a list of tickets where you think this has happened I will do my best to check my records in the interests of helping resolve any potential problems in respect of this.

or some such wording - to my my mind this shows a desire to co-operate with them which often seems to be the key to obtaining an out of court settlement, which is probably your best outcome.

If you (@TTwig) are not aware of other occasions where this has happened, you should say that rather than just accepting it as the above statement suggests. If you are unsure, say that and ask that they furnish you with details so that you can check or clarify the situation. It may be they are seeing journeys from when you hald a railcard and assuming you didn't.

 

[AlterEgo]

Which railcard did you apply to your ticket for the journey in question? There are some railcard which will be instant red flags to a prosecution team being asked to consider if you made a mistake or not.

 

[WesternLancer]

If you (@TTwig) are not aware of other occasions where this has happened, you should say that rather than just accepting it as the above statement suggests. If you are unsure, say that and ask that they furnish you with details so that you can check or clarify the situation. It may be they are seeing journeys from when you hald a railcard and assuming you didn't.

Thanks Haywain - good advice - I very much agree. Esp as I now note the OP indicates they can't actually recall taking the train on prev occasions after the railcard expired, so if that is correct rephrasing my suggested wording would indeed be a good idea.

@TTwig - this is the advantage of pausing before replying to see what suggestions come in here in the hope it can get your reply as good as it can be - both in the hope it helps avoid prosecution but also minimises the sum they might ask you for, within reason.

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

I think your proposed letter is fine. Chiltern will audit your online ticket purchasing history so if this shows purchases of other railcard discounted tickets since your railcard expired then they will want to factor the cost of these into the settlement amount.

You should be able to research your own online ticket purchasing history yourself although this is probably best done via the website rather than app version.