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Today I was caught at the gates at reading for getting tickets shorter than the one I needed. The rail staff took my university ID details and checked my trainline app history showing I had done it 4 times before. What should I expect and is there any chance of settling out of court. I deeply regret these actions and I am sure I won't do it again. Thanks a lot.
Today I was caught at the gates at reading for getting tickets shorter than the one I needed. The rail staff took my university ID details and checked my trainline app history showing I had done it 4 times before. What should I expect and is there any chance of settling out of court. I deeply regret these actions and I am sure I won't do it again. Thanks a lot.
You should expect to get a letter (which may take some weeks) asking for your comments. They may or may not offer an administrative settlement as an alternative to prosecution at this stage.
You are perhaps lucky that you were caught after only four offences. It is worth saying at this stage that a conviction and fine for not having a valid ticket - which would be the most likely charge - would not have a disastrous effect on your future.
If your journey was on GWR then they are particularly known for settling out of court for fairly straightforward offences.
Whilst the offer of a so-called "out of court" settlement isn't guaranteed to be made, if you are offered this, you can perhaps expect to pay a three figure sum towards the train company's investigation costs, plus the full undiscounted anytime single fare(s) for each and every occasion that it's identified that you didn't have the correct tickets for the entirety of your journey(s).
You should expect to get a letter (which may take some weeks) asking for your comments. They may or may not offer an administrative settlement as an alternative to prosecution at this stage.
You are perhaps lucky that you were caught after only four offences. It is worth saying at this stage that a conviction and fine for not having a valid ticket - which would be the most likely charge - would not have a disastrous effect on your future.
If your journey was on GWR then they are particularly known for settling out of court for fairly straightforward offences.
Thanks so much for your reply, how much of an impact will my responses to being interviewed under caution have? I answered everything honestly admitting to my wrongdoings.
Whilst the offer of a so-called "out of court" settlement isn't guaranteed to be made, if you are offered this, you can perhaps expect to pay a three figure sum towards the train company's investigation costs, plus the full undiscounted anytime single fare(s) for each and every occasion that it's identified that you didn't have the correct tickets for the entirety of your journey(s).
Forum expert @Hadders is usually able to give helpful general advice on disputes and prosecutions, but what's likely first is that that the investigation team will initially write to you asking you for your point of view / version of events.
(Assume here that you've provided the revenue staff member with a valid name and current address).
You just have to wait for the letter. If there was already a clear interview and they have the information they need, they might skip the first letter and offer a settlement straight away. GWR seems to understand that it's not a good idea for a business to prosecute customers willing to make amends, so you tend to only see them do it as a last resort.
Here's the advice I usually give to people who come here asking for help in similar circumstances to yourself.
You will receive a letter from the train company or an investigation company acting on their behalf. The letter will typically take a couple of months to arrive and can be sooner but shouldn't take longer than six months. The letter will say that they have received a report, are considering prosecuting you and asking for your version of events. It is important that you engage with and reply to this letter. You might want to include the following in your reply:
- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the train company's administrative costs in dealing with the matter
Make sure your reply is short and concise, don't give a sob story - they've heard it all before. Most train companies are usually prepared to offer an administrative settlement (commonly known as an out of court settlement) for people who engage with the process and who haven't come to their attention before. There is no guarantee of this and the train company would be well within their rights to prosecute you in the magistrates court.
If you are offered a settlement the amount varies depending on the train company and circumstances but tend to be a few hundred pounds plus the outstanding fare. An out of court settlement might appear to be a fine, but it isn't and you won't have a criminal record as a result of accepting one.
Feel free to post a copy of the letter once it arrives (with personal details redacted) along with your draft reply in this thread I'm sure forum members will be happy to proof read it for you.
Today I was caught at the gates at reading for getting tickets shorter than the one I needed. The rail staff took my university ID details and checked my trainline app history showing I had done it 4 times before. What should I expect and is there any chance of settling out of court. I deeply regret these actions and I am sure I won't do it again. Thanks a lot.
If you are a student did you give an address where a postal letter will reach you as you need to act on it ASAP or it will escalate to court - so if you gave your parental home address make sure someone watches / forwards / opens your post - if you gave a term time address make sure you get post from communal letter boxes or arrange to get post over the xmas holidays if you are not there. IIRC you only get 14 days to respond to letters and they always send this stuff in hard copy it seems.
If you are a student did you give an address where a postal letter will reach you as you need to act on it ASAP or it will escalate to court - so if you gave your parental home address make sure someone watches / forwards / opens your post - if you gave a term time address make sure you get post from communal letter boxes or arrange to get post over the xmas holidays if you are not there. IIRC you only get 14 days to respond to letters and they always send this stuff in hard copy it seems.
Here's the advice I usually give to people who come here asking for help in similar circumstances to yourself.
You will receive a letter from the train company or an investigation company acting on their behalf. The letter will typically take a couple of months to arrive and can be sooner but shouldn't take longer than six months. The letter will say that they have received a report, are considering prosecuting you and asking for your version of events. It is important that you engage with and reply to this letter. You might want to include the following in your reply:
- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the train company's administrative costs in dealing with the matter
Make sure your reply is short and concise, don't give a sob story - they've heard it all before. Most train companies are usually prepared to offer an administrative settlement (commonly known as an out of court settlement) for people who engage with the process and who haven't come to their attention before. There is no guarantee of this and the train company would be well within their rights to prosecute you in the magistrates court.
If you are offered a settlement the amount varies depending on the train company and circumstances but tend to be a few hundred pounds plus the outstanding fare. An out of court settlement might appear to be a fine, but it isn't and you won't have a criminal record as a result of accepting one.
Feel free to post a copy of the letter once it arrives (with personal details redacted) along with your draft reply in this thread I'm sure forum members will be happy to proof read it for you.
Could be up to 6 months to get your letter in theory, as that is the time limit typically on bringing it to court - but from what we see on here 4 to 8 weeks is much more common/likely.
They will now commence things like more thorough checks on your on line buying history to look for any other possible evasion activities on your account (they can access all ticket purchasing sites purchase history if they need to)
As per post #6 the initial letter won't offer you a settlement IIRC (see others posted on other threads for examples) - it will generally ask for your version of events, if you were the person stopped etc etc (ie in case of people who use false ID or give fake addresses). You will have to reply, admit your wrong doing, apologise, show you have learned your lesson to ask if they might 'kindly be prepared to consider settling' sort of thing - the letter you will get will (strongly) imply that you are on a track to being prosecuted for fare evasion, so be prepared for that - as I say there must be copies of such letters others have uploaded if you want to peruse threads that relate to GWR you may find one.
In your favour is the fact that GWR (I assume it was them at Reading) are one of the rail companies that are known for being prepared to settle, tho the fact that you are a 'serial offender' of course weakens your position a bit.
You should now read and be aware of their Revenue Protection policy whilst you wait to hear from them
Understand penalties at GWR and our enforcement policies, including fare evasion and travel regulations.
www.gwr.com
in particular the relevant PDF docs at the bottom of that web page
In the mean time you should take active steps to be able to show you have learned from this and won't do it again - eg buy a season ticket if you travel every day on the route, and / or a Railcard to legitimately reduce your fares. By doing this you can say in your reply to them what you have actually done in practical terms to stop evading fares from now on. This may well help persuade them to offer you an out of court settlement so worth you giving serious consideration to this.
If you want advice on how to do the journey for less cost, you can post your travel details on here or another part of the forum and people will happily advise to see if there are way you can legitimately reduce your ticket costs. eg where you go to and from, what sort of times, how often etc.
Of course this is all going to cost you way more than had you just bought correct tickets, but that is in the nature of these things and I am sure you regret it - you just need to focus now on achieving the out of court settlement.
Plenty of help here with how you will need to reply when you get their letter, so do not hesitate to ask.
This was around the 18th of October 2022 and I still haven't received a letter. What could this mean? And what should I do? Since this instance I have purchased a railcard and not made any mistakes of the like.
I was reported for prosecution for ticket evasion, I posted a thread describing the details previously.
This was around the 18th of October 2022 and I still haven't received a letter. What could this mean? And what should I do? Since this instance I have purchased a railcard and not made any mistakes of the like.
Do you think you gave them a term time address in say a hall of residence, and if so is there a risk that in said place post does not reach you reliably from say communal letter boxes / pigeon holes?
Was it GWR that stopped you? You could contact them to ask them but of course if the case has got forgotten it's not really in your interest to do that. Tho a case with 4 previous incidents detected as you mentioned would not seem one they would want to fail to chase up.
However, if they have sent stuff that has not reached you the risk is it has been escalated to court and you may have been found guilty without knowing it - in which case you would have to go down the Statutory Declaration route (see other threads on this but basically a process that you enact when you have been taken to court without knowing you have been taken to court at the time) to re-set the clock so as to try and be able to negotiate a settlement - this would be time consuming and add extra complications to your trying to get this sorted out - so you may wish to set the potential of that against the risk of reminding something they have forgotten about.
As GWR tend to offer settlements for people who co-operate with them there is a good chance that this might work OK for you, if you contact them. But of course that can't be guaranteed.
www.gwr.com
