Report for Prosecution - SWR - Repeat Fare Evasion

[JSingles]

Hi,

My case is one that I've seen a few times in these forums - essentially paying for a shorter journey from a station with no barriers to get a slightly cheaper fare (foolish, I know).

I have only recently been doing this for commuting (buying an open return day ticket from vauxhall to Waterloo but travelling from further out). I've done this for 3 weeks so in total would be 15 times which saved approx £5 per day. I have never short fared prior to this.

I was given a report for prosecution and gave all my correct details (name, address), however, I am due to move address soon, which I didn't think about in the moment, and so assuming the letter takes a little while to arrive I'm concerned I may miss the letter.

A couple questions;

1) How likely is it for my case to have an out of court settlement? The operator is south western railway am fully willing to cooperate fully with the investigation.

2) Should I email them immediately to let know of my upcoming address change? I ask because I've seen some threads suggesting contacting them isn't helpful?

I'd be hugely grateful for any advice on this or in general on my case.

Thanks

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi,

My case is one that I've seen a few times in these forums - essentially paying for a shorter journey from a station with no barriers to get a slightly cheaper fare (foolish, I know).

I have only recently been doing this for commuting (buying an open return day ticket from vauxhall to Waterloo but travelling from further out). I've done this for 3 weeks so in total would be 15 times which saved approx £5 per day. I have never short fared prior to this.

I was given a report for prosecution and gave all my correct details (name, address), however, I am due to move address soon, which I didn't think about in the moment, and so assuming the letter takes a little while to arrive I'm concerned I may miss the letter.

A couple questions;

1) How likely is it for my case to have an out of court settlement? The operator is south western railway am fully willing to cooperate fully with the investigation.

2) Should I email them immediately to let know of my upcoming address change? I ask because I've seen some threads suggesting contacting them isn't helpful?

I'd be hugely grateful for any advice on this or in general on my case.

Thanks

welcome

- probability of settling is fairly high I would think.

Getting the post:

2 is an option

also you have the option of setting up a Royal Mail redirect (sometimes people complain that they don't 100% work but you can at least test them by setting one up a few days before you move (they need time to set up - see the Royal Mail website so you know) and you can test it by sending a letter or postcard to yourself at your old address and see if it turns up - and how quickly - at the address you have arranged for post to be forwarded to.

or you could do both of the above to be certain

the one thing you do need to do is to ensure you get any letters the railways sends - as failing to respond to such letters means it will be escalate to court automatically

if you want to see the consequences of that at their worst - see this case and the hassle the person is having to do to get it sorted out after not getting inital letter and it eventually escalated to court and bailiffs without them knowing about it...

Help with HMCTS baliffs

First time here and posting after recommendation from a someone on Reddit, hi everyone. I’m based in London and had bailiffs turn up at my mother house this morning. I’ve actually been homeless since March 2023 and have been staying in between my mum and my dads and a few other places, but have...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[JSingles]

welcome

- probability of settling is fairly high I would think.

Getting the post:

2 is an option

also you have the option of setting up a Royal Mail redirect (sometimes people complain that they don't 100% work but you can at least test them by setting one up a few days before you move (they need time to set up - see the Royal Mail website so you know) and you can test it by sending a letter or postcard to yourself at your old address and see if it turns up - and how quickly - at the address you have arranged for post to be forwarded to.

or you could do both of the above to be certain

the one thing you do need to do is to ensure you get any letters the railways sends - as failing to respond to such letters means it will be escalate to court automatically

if you want to see the consequences of that at their worst - see this case and the hassle the person is having to do to get it sorted out after not getting inital letter and it eventually escalated to court and bailiffs without them knowing about it...

Help with HMCTS baliffs

First time here and posting after recommendation from a someone on Reddit, hi everyone. I’m based in London and had bailiffs turn up at my mother house this morning. I’ve actually been homeless since March 2023 and have been staying in between my mum and my dads and a few other places, but have...

www.railforums.co.uk

Thanks for the quick response, much appreciated!

Really useful advice - I'll likely do both things you've suggested to ensure I get the letter.

Another question, do you have any rough idea of what the out of court settled figure would be in my case? My guess is a couple hundred pounds in total but not sure.
Also, I assume the best course of action in responding to the letter would be to just fess up to it, show my remorse and my willingness to cover the costs and to not do anything like it again? (which I genuinely won't)

I'll likely post the redacted contents of it on this thread before I reply so I can get some more advice on the specifics.

Thanks

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks for the quick response, much appreciated!

Really useful advice - I'll likely do both things you've suggested to ensure I get the letter.

Another question, do you have any rough idea of what the out of court settled figure would be in my case? My guess is a couple hundred pounds in total but not sure.
Also, I assume the best course of action in responding to the letter would be to just fess up to it, show my remorse and my willingness to cover the costs and to not do anything like it again? (which I genuinely won't)

I'll likely post the redacted contents of it on this thread before I reply so I can get some more advice on the specifics.

Thanks

Have a look at some other threads involving the same train company whilst you wait for the letter. There is also general advice on the sort of responses to give

Note that they will audit your ticket buying history on line to look for suspicious tickets, so be prepared for that

If offered out of court settlements are usually based on
- the costs of the fares evaded at the full Anytime Single fare (a punitive peak time price) - so it's not the sum you saved they will likely be after, but budget for the full price from your origin station to Waterloo
Plus
- an admin fee that may be in the region of c£150 to £200 (IIRC SWR is not at the cheaper end of the admin charge scale)

The general advice here is when you get their letter to ask what people here think of its content (letters usually fairly standard but they can ask different things)

and before you reply to get your intended response wording checked here to ensure content of the reply is as good as it can be to achieve your desired outcome (eg out of court settlement)

Also
If there is something you can do now, that you can point to in your reply you have actively done to change your ways, that is a good idea to do ASAP - such a thing would probably be to buy a season or flexi season ticket for the travel you undertake, if it makes financial sense for you to do so. This can form part of your reply to SWR in due course

 

[SouthernOne]

You can email SWR with new address, to prosecutions@swrailway.com include the MG reference number.

 

[JSingles]

Picking up this thread again.

I've had an email from SWR which included the following;

'Our investigation shows you purchased and used similar tickets which were only scanned at one end of your journey between 2nd May 2025 and 23rd May 2025. Please explain these journeys.'

They have also requested proof of Railcards for journeys going back to 2020:
'provide proof of the 16-25 and 26-30 railcards including their start and expiry dates from 18th January 2020 and 23rd May 2025 (please include a screenshot of the digital card or photo if you have a physical card). If you are unable to do this, you can access your railcard information by logging into your railcard account on the Railcard website'

Some questions on the above:

1) are the above standard questions regarding this? I.e. if I send a relatively standard response using this forum as a guide then it's likely I'll get an out of court settlement? (I'll put a draft response on here shortly before emailing them back)

2) I've always had valid Railcards for my journeys and have email receipts for all Railcards going back further than 2020, would that be ok for proof?
My issue is that I bought Railcards in 2021/2 on Trainline which I don't have a photo of and aren't showing on my Trainline account for some reason - I only have the email receipts. I'm going to contact Trainline directly and ask why they aren't showing but am wondering if SWR will take the email receipt as proof?

Thanks as always

 

[WesternLancer]

Picking up this thread again.

I've had an email from SWR which included the following;

'Our investigation shows you purchased and used similar tickets which were only scanned at one end of your journey between 2nd May 2025 and 23rd May 2025. Please explain these journeys.'

They have also requested proof of Railcards for journeys going back to 2020:
'provide proof of the 16-25 and 26-30 railcards including their start and expiry dates from 18th January 2020 and 23rd May 2025 (please include a screenshot of the digital card or photo if you have a physical card). If you are unable to do this, you can access your railcard information by logging into your railcard account on the Railcard website'

Some questions on the above:

1) are the above standard questions regarding this? I.e. if I send a relatively standard response using this forum as a guide then it's likely I'll get an out of court settlement? (I'll put a draft response on here shortly before emailing them back)

2) I've always had valid Railcards for my journeys and have email receipts for all Railcards going back further than 2020, would that be ok for proof?
My issue is that I bought Railcards in 2021/2 on Trainline which I don't have a photo of and aren't showing on my Trainline account for some reason - I only have the email receipts. I'm going to contact Trainline directly and ask why they aren't showing but am wondering if SWR will take the email receipt as proof?

Thanks as always

I think e mail receipts if that sort would be acceptable to them. People are under no obligation to keep expired railcards so providing that sort of e mail is a reasonable response from you imho.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Sep 2025 ==

A generally co operative response is usually the key to an out of court settlement.

 

[JSingles]

Thanks again for the advice!
Here's a draft of my response to their email. Any advice on wording or things to include/remove would be greatly appreciated!

Dear ___

Thank you for your email.

I would like to begin by offering my sincere apologies for my behaviour. I am sorry for not holding a valid ticket for my full journey from Teddington to Waterloo when I was approached by a ticket enforcement officer on 23rd May 2025. The previous journeys you highlighted between Vauxhall and Waterloo during the weeks before this incident were also occasions where I had failed to purchase the correct ticket for the full journey starting at Teddington.

I deeply regret this lapse in judgment and acknowledge that not paying the correct fare was unacceptable. I fully recognise the seriousness of my actions and the impact that fare evasion has on the rail industry. Since then, I have made sure that every journey I take is paid for correctly, and I will continue to do so.

Although I cannot excuse my actions, I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to resolve this matter out of court. I am more than willing to pay the outstanding fares as well as any administrative costs involved in dealing with this case.

As requested, I have attached email receipts confirming my railcard purchases during the periods requested. Where possible, I have also included images of the cards themselves. I have set out a summary below showing the type of railcard, the purchase date, and the start and expiry dates for each. (i've then got a summary table below)

Thank you for your time.

Yours Sincerely