SE Prosecution for short fare

[Railuser2025]

I have stupidly short fared one stop each way of my journey to and from work for a long time, it started as a money saving hardship and then became the norm. I don't have barriers at my entering station, so didn't need to scan my barcode, but then did to get out.

One day they had the barcodes cut off in central London and questioned me then sent this letter. They are going to see that this isn't the first time from my history and pointed out that they could see I had done it numerous times that week. Since then, I have since not ever done it again. Is this a good response to send as a starting letter accepting the matter in question only?

Dear Prosecutions Team,

I am writing in response to your letter regarding the incident that occurred on xxxx , during which I was stopped by a member of your staff.

First and foremost, I would like to sincerely apologise for my actions. I fully understand and accept the importance of travelling with a valid ticket at all times and recognise that my failure to do so was wrong. I appreciate that ensuring all passengers pay their fare is essential for fairness and the proper functioning of the railway system.

Regardless of the reason, I take full responsibility for my actions.

I have since taken steps to ensure this will not happen again, including the purchase of a new season ticket that covers the entirety of my journey. I kindly ask that you take this letter into consideration when reviewing my case.

If it is at all possible, I would be extremely grateful if you would consider settling this matter without court proceedings. I am willing to pay the outstanding fare and a reasonable administrative cost to resolve the issue.

Once again, I apologise sincerely for any inconvenience caused, and thank you for the opportunity to provide my comments.

 

[notmyrealname]

Hi, welcome to the forum. You could show them an image of your season ticket as proof of what you've done to stay within the rules from now on. Or I think you can tell them the ticket's serial number, not quite sure about that.

 

[Railuser2025]

Hi, welcome to the forum. You could show them an image of your season ticket as proof of what you've done to stay within the rules from now on. Or I think you can tell them the ticket's serial number, not quite sure about that.

Good idea, thanks, i shall add that in

 

[WesternLancer]

One to think about
Instead of

"I am willing to pay the outstanding fare..."

You could maybe say

"I am willing to pay any fare that I owe..."

which is maybe rather subtle but does not deny that you have done this on other occasion (I note you say there is a long history of short faring which you need to anticipate they may discover from checking and may ask you about, and it sounds you are anticipating that from your post) but neither actively admits it at this stage. I think in your case it may not be ideal to imply in any way this was a one off...

Your call of course, and others here may disagree of course so you may wish to see if others have thoughts before you send what largely looks like a reasonable reply.

 

[Railuser2025]

One to think about
Instead of

"I am willing to pay the outstanding fare..."

You could maybe say

"I am willing to pay any fare that I owe..."

which is maybe rather subtle but does not deny that you have done this on other occasion (I note you say there is a long history of short faring which you need to anticipate they may discover from checking and may ask you about, and it sounds you are anticipating that from your post) but neither actively admits it at this stage. I think in your case it may not be ideal to imply in any way this was a one off...

Your call of course, and others here may disagree of course so you may wish to see if others have thoughts before you send what largely looks like a reasonable reply.

Thanks for this, Funnily enough i had that wording, then amended so shall change it back.
This could go back years and i now feel like an idiot as the additional travel card would have been around an extra £30 a month. I did also think later down the line to mention that they are in the same fare zone 3 which is what led me to do this and somewhat justify my stupidness in doing so.
Do you know if they ever take into account the fact that you have spent so much on almost entire journeys as i see that here most people mention they would ask for the highest single fare for the whole journey disregarding the travel card that covers around 95% of the journey, for me it is 3 mins of a 30 minute with one stop not covered? In the error of my judgement i never believed this would be so big a problem and that's a very important lesson i will learn

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks for this, Funnily enough i had that wording, then amended so shall change it back.

This could go back years and i now feel like an idiot as the additional travel card would have been around an extra £30 a month. I did also think later down the line to mention that they are in the same fare zone 3 which is what led me to do this and somewhat justify my stupidness in doing so.
Do you know if they ever take into account the fact that you have spent so much on almost entire journeys as i see that here most people mention they would ask for the highest single fare for the whole journey disregarding the travel card that covers around 95% of the journey, for me it is 3 mins of a 30 minute with one stop not covered? In the error of my judgement i never believed this would be so big a problem and that's a very important lesson i will learn

I'm not sure on the answer to your specific question but they might do

Some short faring is so blatant that some operators will not accept it as part payment (tickets bought from Vauxhall to Waterloo to get through the barriers with SW trains is an example, there's probably a SE Trains equivalent).

However, what we do find is that GTR will be pretty reasonable if they believe you are being honest, reasonable and co-operative with them. You will have to see what response you get to your reply to them - ie how things develop I think.

Where they do detect past evasion on a significant scale they sometimes write back and say they want to discuss it with the passenger as part of any arrangement to consider a settlement. The general advice on here is to try and avoid speaking to them (in case you inadvertently incriminate yourself in discussions which verbally can be easy to do I suspect) - but what we do see in that circumstances are:

a) people who have spoken to them and reported back say the conversations are reasonable and have resulted in a settlement in the end, albeit including past evasion
or
b) such conversations have been avoided by replying and admitting to other evasion, asking the railway company to send details of the evasion they believe has happened so that the passenger can check it, and ultimately offering to pay what has been correctly identified as evasion as part of a settlement agreement

It sound like you have prepared yourself for what might happen and that's a good thing. They might well not charge you season or travelcard prices for what has been evaded however, as they do want to ensure an element of the punitive about it as an incentive for people to not do until they are just asked to 'pay the difference' if they ever get caught.

 

[Railuser2025]

I'm not sure on the answer to your specific question but they might do

Some short faring is so blatant that some operators will not accept it as part payment (tickets bought from Vauxhall to Waterloo to get through the barriers with SW trains is an example, there's probably a SE Trains equivalent).

However, what we do find is that GTR will be pretty reasonable if they believe you are being honest, reasonable and co-operative with them. You will have to see what response you get to your reply to them - ie how things develop I think.

Where they do detect past evasion on a significant scale they sometimes write back and say they want to discuss it with the passenger as part of any arrangement to consider a settlement. The general advice on here is to try and avoid speaking to them (in case you inadvertently incriminate yourself in discussions which verbally can be easy to do I suspect) - but what we do see in that circumstances are:

a) people who have spoken to them and reported back say the conversations are reasonable and have resulted in a settlement in the end, albeit including past evasion
or
b) such conversations have been avoided by replying and admitting to other evasion, asking the railway company to send details of the evasion they believe has happened so that the passenger can check it, and ultimately offering to pay what has been correctly identified as evasion as part of a settlement agreement

It sound like you have prepared yourself for what might happen and that's a good thing. They might well not charge you season or travelcard prices for what has been evaded however, as they do want to ensure an element of the punitive about it as an incentive for people to not do until they are just asked to 'pay the difference' if they ever get caught.

Whilst stupid mine 1 was one stop from home on a journey of around 6 stops so it wasnt as blatant as Vauxhall to waterloo so we shall see.
Thanks again for all the info it is really helpful and has reduced my stress on this greatly.

 

[WesternLancer]

Whilst stupid mine 1 was one stop from home on a journey of around 6 stops so it wasnt as blatant as Vauxhall to waterloo so we shall see.
Thanks again for all the info it is really helpful and has reduced my stress on this greatly.

Thanks - given the nature of your case you will need to see what happens next, but of course people here will advise you as things develop.

I agree important to show evidence of your season ticket that you now have. A key thing does seem to be convincing them you have learned a serious lesson and have actively done something to change your ways - the season is such a thing you can use to illustrate this so always worth mentioning it as you do. You could say 'The season ticket number is xxxxx, and I enclose a copy of it' if it is easy for you to do that.