Received Email from ITAL - West Midlands Train Prosecution

[D Mitc]

Dear Forum,

I need your kind advice and guidance.

Two weeks ago I was stopped at New Street Station due to providing a ticket with expired railcard. I had 16-25 railcard in 2021 but switched to family and friends railcard in 2022/2023. In 2023/2024 I did full time study in Solihull and started my apprenticeship in Jan 2025, but I failed to renew my railcard.

Due to panic and feeling overwhelmed, I provided wrong postcode and address (old house) and married name. The day after, I emailed Digital Fraud team directly to rectify this, and they had responded on the same day to ask for proof of address, which I had given on the same day via email (a letter from my bank).

Today, I received an email from ITAL (not the digital fraud team), to ask for information so that they can trace my case:

Subject of email: West Midlands Train Prosecution

Good afternoon,

So we may locate your case, please provide the following information:

• The date you travelled
• The postcode you provided when stopped
• The full name you provided when stopped

Kind regards,


Prosecutions Department •
t. 0870 067 9845 w. www.italgroup.tech


After being stopped, I had renewed my railcard, that is valid starting from this month.

Will there be any possibilities for me to obtain an out-of-court settlement, to be honest, the title of the email sounds a bit disheartening. And can you please guide me to write a response to the letter when it comes, to show how apologetic I am and my willingness to settle the case out of court?

In the meantime, I will respond back to ITAL today, can you please have a quick review:

Dear Prosecution Team,

Thank you for your email.

Please find below, further information as required:
Travel date: [date]
Postcode provided when stopped: [Postcode]
Full name provided when stopped: [Full Name]

Please do let me know if you need anything else.

With best wishes,
xxx



With massive thank you,
A very apologetic train user.

 

[Hadders]

WMT usually settle, and although you've messed them around a bit here, I still suspect they will offer a settlement.

 

[WesternLancer]

Dear Forum,

I need your kind advice and guidance.

Two weeks ago I was stopped at New Street Station due to providing a ticket with expired railcard. I had 16-25 railcard in 2021 but switched to family and friends railcard in 2022/2023. In 2023/2024 I did full time study in Solihull and started my apprenticeship in Jan 2025, but I failed to renew my railcard.

Due to panic and feeling overwhelmed, I provided wrong postcode and address (old house) and married name. The day after, I emailed Digital Fraud team directly to rectify this, and they had responded on the same day to ask for proof of address, which I had given on the same day via email (a letter from my bank).

Today, I received an email from ITAL (not the digital fraud team), to ask for information so that they can trace my case:

Subject of email: West Midlands Train Prosecution

Good afternoon,

So we may locate your case, please provide the following information:

• The date you travelled
• The postcode you provided when stopped
• The full name you provided when stopped

Kind regards,


Prosecutions Department •
t. 0870 067 9845 w. www.italgroup.tech


After being stopped, I had renewed my railcard, that is valid starting from this month.

Will there be any possibilities for me to obtain an out-of-court settlement, to be honest, the title of the email sounds a bit disheartening. And can you please guide me to write a response to the letter when it comes, to show how apologetic I am and my willingness to settle the case out of court?

In the meantime, I will respond back to ITAL today, can you please have a quick review:

Dear Prosecution Team,

Thank you for your email.

Please find below, further information as required:
Travel date: [date]
Postcode provided when stopped: [Postcode]
Full name provided when stopped: [Full Name]

Please do let me know if you need anything else.

With best wishes,
xxx



With massive thank you,
A very apologetic train user.

I suspect their letter asking for the travel details is to match you up to the case so that will help you have a dialogue with them which is usually key to avoiding prosecution in court.

When you hear from them you can get help here on how to respond.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jun 2025 ==

Dear Forum,

I need your kind advice and guidance.

Two weeks ago I was stopped at New Street Station due to providing a ticket with expired railcard. I had 16-25 railcard in 2021 but switched to family and friends railcard in 2022/2023. In 2023/2024 I did full time study in Solihull and started my apprenticeship in Jan 2025, but I failed to renew my railcard.

Due to panic and feeling overwhelmed, I provided wrong postcode and address (old house) and married name. The day after, I emailed Digital Fraud team directly to rectify this, and they had responded on the same day to ask for proof of address, which I had given on the same day via email (a letter from my bank).

Today, I received an email from ITAL (not the digital fraud team), to ask for information so that they can trace my case:

Subject of email: West Midlands Train Prosecution

Good afternoon,

So we may locate your case, please provide the following information:

• The date you travelled
• The postcode you provided when stopped
• The full name you provided when stopped

Kind regards,


Prosecutions Department •
t. 0870 067 9845 w. www.italgroup.tech


After being stopped, I had renewed my railcard, that is valid starting from this month.

Will there be any possibilities for me to obtain an out-of-court settlement, to be honest, the title of the email sounds a bit disheartening. And can you please guide me to write a response to the letter when it comes, to show how apologetic I am and my willingness to settle the case out of court?

In the meantime, I will respond back to ITAL today, can you please have a quick review:

Dear Prosecution Team,

Thank you for your email.

Please find below, further information as required:
Travel date: [date]
Postcode provided when stopped: [Postcode]
Full name provided when stopped: [Full Name]

Please do let me know if you need anything else.

With best wishes,
xxx



With massive thank you,
A very apologetic train user.

I would add the train journey and train time too if you know that time correctly.

Make it easy for them to find and match your case. It’s in your interests to do so imho.

 

[D Mitc]

Thank you @Hadders and @WesternLancer for your advice.

 

[D Mitc]

Good Morning.

I had received an email with an attachment (letter) requesting to respond within 14 days on the back of the letter or if there are any mitigation circumstances, otherwise to pay sum of money to avoid a legal proceeding via visiting website (www.ircas.co.uk) or phone call.

I had looked into the website and paid the settlement amount as required. I’m wondering if I should respond to ITAL to confirm the payment, and to confirm if the case has been closed?

Dear Prosecution team,

Thank you for your email and letter for the case ref: xxxxxx.

Please find below, payment confirmation of £xxxxx as required.

Can you please confirm receipt of payment and that the case has been closed?

With best wishes,
xxx


Thank you for your advice again.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Good Morning.

I had received an email with an attachment (letter) requesting to respond within 14 days on the back of the letter or if there are any mitigation circumstances, otherwise to pay sum of money to avoid a legal proceeding via visiting website (www.ircas.co.uk) or phone call.

I had looked into the website and paid the settlement amount as required. I’m wondering if I should respond to ITAL to confirm the payment, and to confirm if the case has been closed?

Dear Prosecution team,

Thank you for your email and letter for the case ref: xxxxxx.

Please find below, payment confirmation of £xxxxx as required.

Can you please confirm receipt of payment and that the case has been closed?

With best wishes,
xxx


Thank you for your advice again.

Practically speaking, there's no need to do this. If there's a screen showing your payment, take a screen shot (yes, I do appreciate that you may have already closed that window down): when it shows up, keep a copy of your bank statement (or similar) showing the payment. In the unlikely event of the railway coming back and saying that you haven't made the payment, you then have the evidence to show that actually you have made the payment in line with ircas' instructions.

 

[WesternLancer]

I had looked into the website and paid the settlement amount as required. I’m wondering if I should respond to ITAL to confirm the payment, and to confirm if the case has been closed?

Dear Prosecution team,

Thank you for your email and letter for the case ref: xxxxxx.

Please find below, payment confirmation of £xxxxx as required.

Can you please confirm receipt of payment and that the case has been closed?

With best wishes,
xxx


Thank you for your advice again.

It don't think it can be of harm to ask them for this confirmation though you may want to wait a day to two before doing so such that they have the payment received their end.

You should certainly retain any proof of your payment long term (eg keep it for over a year) that you ay already have - eg screen shot of payment or evidence from your own bank of making a payment to the railway company.

I assume you paid it for the sum demanded because you didn't fundamentally dispute that the amount they asked for reflected the level of fares evaded plus their admin costs?

 

[D Mitc]

Thank you @Fawkes Cat, I truly appreciate it. ai had taken a screenshot of the payment confirmation, and save the email confirmation from IRCAS for the said payment.

Thank you @WesternLancer, I will wait for 2 working days before sending an email. Yes, I paid the requested amount plus their admin costs, or the total amount as shown on the letter and IRCAS website.

Have a great afternoon.