Report for prosecution and strange interaction with the rail officer

[Alluha]

I was travelling via SWR from Southampton back to London as I always do and have done for the past 5 years. I always buy open return tickets and use them as stated however yesterday I made a mistake. I have dyslexia and attribute this to my mistake of buying a one-way and therefore not having a ticket to show an officer during my return. I began explaining my situation to him and he seemed very friendly and helpful at first. He assumed I was working for a company, and it was bought on my behalf and printed a receipt titled "report for prosecution" after taking my details. I was telling him my situation as he was printing this out and even showed him the trainline app where my purchase history shows many tickets bought in the last few months all open return. I then asked what it is he wants me to sign, and he stated it was for the details to be confirmed as correct. He said that the words on the receipt sound big and scary but it's nothing to worry about really and that they don’t print out tickets and fines anymore and this was the way? He immediately sped off and I was left reading something that says prosecution after never being fined before, currently having a valid railcard that he even scanned and never receiving a warning. Any advice or just pay the £135 in th epost within 21 days like I always read about?

 

[Kite159]

You will need to wait to receive a letter (or email) from SWR. You haven't been given a penalty fare.

I would imagine on seeing the account with various open returns & various single tickets [mostly from A to B] might have cause the RPI to suspect the re-using of open tickets if they haven't been scanned.

 

[jfollows]

What £135?
You need to wait for them to contact you first.

You’ll be asked to explain your situation, of not being able to present a valid ticket, and they will usually offer an out of court settlement if you engage with them, apologise, and say you’re aware of your error.

They will examine your purchase history too. If they believe this shows something potentially related to fare evasion they will ask about this too. In the meantime I suggest you examine your Trainline purchase history also.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

I was travelling via SWR from Southampton back to London as I always do and have done for the past 5 years. I always buy open return tickets and use them as stated however yesterday I made a mistake. I have dyslexia and attribute this to my mistake of buying a one-way and therefore not having a ticket to show an officer during my return. I began explaining my situation to him and he seemed very friendly and helpful at first. He assumed I was working for a company, and it was bought on my behalf and printed a receipt titled "report for prosecution" after taking my details. I was telling him my situation as he was printing this out and even showed him the trainline app where my purchase history shows many tickets bought in the last few months all open return. I then asked what it is he wants me to sign, and he stated it was for the details to be confirmed as correct. He said that the words on the receipt sound big and scary but it's nothing to worry about really and that they don’t print out tickets and fines anymore and this was the way? He immediately sped off and I was left reading something that says prosecution after never being fined before, currently having a valid railcard that he even scanned and never receiving a warning. Any advice or just pay the £135 in th epost within 21 days like I always read about?

Welcome to the forum.

Although the notice you have been given is headed 'Report for Prosecution', that's about the railway keeping their options open: they may go as far as prosecution, but it's fairly likely that they won't.

Because you were caught without a ticket, the railway could take you to court (in detail - railway byelaw 18(1) says that 'no person shall enter any train for the purpose of travelling on the railway unless he has with him a valid ticket entitling him to travel.' There's nothing here about whether you meant (intended) to do this or not - just not having a ticket is enough to get you into trouble. And byelaw 24(1) says that you can be fined for this. See https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a79c14b40f0b66d161ade8c/railway-byelaws.pdf for the exact words).

But in general the railway are most interested in (a) getting the fare(s) that they should have been paid and (b) making sure that it won't happen again. So what will happen now is that the railway will have a look at your ticket purchasing record: you've told us that you always buy a return ticket so they won't find anything to worry about - but they will want to get the money back for the journey where you were caught. So they will probably write to you asking for your side of the story: as long as you reply explaining that it was a mistake and you won't do it again, they will most likely offer you an 'out of court settlement' for the train journey you were making, plus the cost of their investigation - so probably the cost of an anytime single from Southampton to London, plus maybe £150 for the investigation.

For someone who had been buying singles and fare dodging for the return journey, the process is much the same - but the railway would be asking for all the dodged fares back. So if you were in that position (and you have told us that you're not) they would be looking to pay quite a lot to the railway.

 

[jfollows]

Anytime single Southampton-Waterloo is £57

 

[WesternLancer]

I was travelling via SWR from Southampton back to London as I always do and have done for the past 5 years. I always buy open return tickets and use them as stated however yesterday I made a mistake. I have dyslexia and attribute this to my mistake of buying a one-way and therefore not having a ticket to show an officer during my return. I began explaining my situation to him and he seemed very friendly and helpful at first. He assumed I was working for a company, and it was bought on my behalf and printed a receipt titled "report for prosecution" after taking my details. I was telling him my situation as he was printing this out and even showed him the trainline app where my purchase history shows many tickets bought in the last few months all open return. I then asked what it is he wants me to sign, and he stated it was for the details to be confirmed as correct. He said that the words on the receipt sound big and scary but it's nothing to worry about really and that they don’t print out tickets and fines anymore and this was the way? He immediately sped off and I was left reading something that says prosecution after never being fined before, currently having a valid railcard that he even scanned and never receiving a warning. Any advice or just pay the £135 in th epost within 21 days like I always read about?

You could have a look at some other threads involving SWR to see how this sort of thing tends to develop and how people approach dealing with how to respond and what to do.

You will get help from here on what to do at each stage to minimise the problems created by what has happened.

Do ask any questions you like so that you can fully understand the process and what will happen.

 

[Alluha]

I'm not too worried as I have a Railcard that is valid, always have valid tickets upon return that always get scanned and don't fare dodge. I'm just waiting for that letter at the moment and hope to just pay the fine and move forward.

Thanks for the replies everyone!