It is a tad. Is it best to just sit tight? Or contact them after a few weeks?
Bit of a lengthy post to follow but hopefully some of this will be useful and adds to the good advice already given.
The general advice below should help you understand the process and how to prepare for that / how to deal with it - but post as many questions as you want for clarification.
Info might also help your friend who you mentioned being caught a couple of weeks ago.
-
Apart from if you move address, it's probably not worth contacting them until about 4 months from now (and there are pros and cons to that - so make a note in your diary to head back here for advice on that in 4 months if you have not already heard.
- As you might appreciate, what has happened is the first stage to potentially being prosecuted in court for fare evasion - but as you will see below it's usually possible to avoid this by co-operating with them - and the
vital part of that starts with receiving the letter / or e-mail communication that they will usually send in due course, and responding to it appropriately.
-
Ref clarifying your current postal address, they may already have enough to get it as mentioned above - but if you want to do that then you can do so (but I would leave it a week to 14 days so that any report taken by the staff can get uploaded at the back office or they will find it hard to match things up) - if you do decide to do that keep any communication just to the basics ref the address - do not get into any of the detail about what happened / why / excuses etc at this stage
so it would be something like:
If they took your date of birth you could include that in any message as it would presumably help match up the message with their record, esp if you have a relatively common name
------------------------------
To:
Contact our Prosecutions department
Email:
GWRProsecutions@gwr.com
Dear Sir/ Madam
I was stopped on x date at y location and questioned about the validity of my rail ticket.
I would like to check you have accurate contact details for me so that I can respond to anything you may need to send me about this incident.
Please note my correct name and address is: …..
My e-mail address is:
Yours faithfully
-----------------------------
When you change address:
Formal stuff that you need to deal with about this (esp if in worst case scenario it came from a court) would be hard copy - so as mentioned above it's wise to set up a Postal Redirection but you can also contact them to advise of a change of address - again - keep it to the basics eg
Dear Sir/ Madam
Reference number (insert this from any receipt slip you have)
I was stopped on x date at y location and questioned about the validity of my rail ticket.
Please note I am due to change address soon.
My address was (the address given when questioned):
My new address as of x date is: .......
My e-mail address is:........
Please can any letters be sent to my new address so that I can respond to them
Yours faithfully
---------------------------------
Other preparation you can do now
A - Have a good read of the GWR Revenue Protection policy on how they deal with these things - see the pdf here - it also includes ways to contact them and their general approach
www.gwr.com/-/media/gwr-sc-website/files/revenue-protection-policy/GWR-Revenue-Protection-Policy-January-2023.pdf
B - If they agree to settle it out of court (which is usually possible to achieve) then they will want paying for the fares they believe you have avoided, plus an admin fee for investigating all this. So check your on line ticket purchasing to look for fares you know do not reflect your actual travel (do not delete your on line ticket buying account as it puts you at a disadvantage not to also be able to check those details during the process that will now happen)
You say you have evaded about 10 fares. Check that is correct as I suspect people often underestimate this sort of thing.
The sum they are likely to want in respect of those fares is the Anytime single fare for each one way journey - that is £19.50 Anytime Single Oxford to Reading
C - Start saving up the money you will need whilst you wait for them to contact you.
Finally - Here is the general advice I mentioned above for you to look over
Firstly, you committed a
criminal offence by travelling with an invalid ticket and railway companies are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they want to. The good news is they will normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with them and who haven't come to their attention before.
Next, what happens is the railway company will write to you. The letter will go to the address that you gave them / on any of your ID they checked so you need to be able to access hard copy post at that address as they often send things that way (but also check e-mail and spam). It is
extremely important that you reply, and you'll only have a limited time to do so (often 14 days from the date on their communication).
When you receive the letter post a redacted copy of it in this thread, along with your draft reply and forum members will proof read it for you. You'll find lots of example letters you can use in this section of the forum but the reply basically needs to mention:
- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident and will not do this again
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the railway company’s administrative costs in dealing with the matter
The railway will probably offer you an out of court settlement. Expect to have to pay the cost of the fare for the journey you made at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the invalid ticket you purchased. In addition they will charge an admin fee, typically £150. They will also audit your online ticket purchase history and if this shows you've purchased other tickets that were not valid (eg railcard discounted tickets when you did not have a valid railcard, or tickets for only part of the journey, or tickets bought after boarding the train you travelled on) they will probably factor the cost of these journeys into the settlement offer. Depending on how many journeys you've made over the period concerned this could end up being expensive.
Settlements usually have to be paid in full within a few days of them being offered so if money is tight you might want to think about how you will raise the sum required at short notice.
