Short Fare / Railcard Prosecution

[lonelyjam92]

Hey all,

I've finally had my first contact from SWR regarding a matter from March. Essentially I was caught having a short ticket (buying a ticket at either end of my journey for one stop, avoiding the stations in the middle and thus saving money on what is very expensive train travel). I'm not proud of it and now understand the seriousness of it, but I've been doing this for maybe 2 years so quite severe. I have also been using a Railcard for the majority of that time, validly for the majority of it until December last year when it expired (I was too old).

So there are two things at play here, the short fares and invalid use of a railcard for 3 months. As soon as I was caught, I've never done it again and this can be shown on my Trainline data.

I'm very worried as the biggest thing I want to avoid is ANY criminal record, but also want to avoid a very very hefty fine, but I really appreciate this is quite prolific and I'm very very stupid, but now worrying a lot... I've had my first correspondence from SWR, which I've shared below. For now they're only asking about Railcard, which I'm assuming I should just own up to. I can share the railcards for the past 2 years or so, but for the last 3 months I've had a Network Rail card but been using a 26-30 instead. I'd really really appreciate any advice anyone can give me as I want to handle this the right way and if I need to share anymore information, please let me know. Thank you so so much in advance.

---------------

On 7 March 2025, a person giving the above name and address was questioned by a member of rail staff about an incident that occurred whilst on South Western Railway Limited property. On the day in question, a ticket was produced that was purchased for only a portion of the actual journey made.

Subsequently the matter has been passed on to our prosecutions team for investigation.

As part of this investigation, we possess the authority, in accordance with the Railway Byelaws, to scrutinise all tickets purchased and used on the South Western Railway network where we suspect that an offence has taken place. We have reviewed your ticket purchase history and found that there are tickets that have been purchased and travelled on the South Western Railway Network, using railcard discounts from 24 October 2022.

We kindly ask for your cooperation by providing any current and historical railcards used to purchase tickets used on the South Western Railway network, including their start and expiry dates. You can access this information by logging into your railcard account on the railcard website here: Login (railcard.co.uk) , or your Trainline account here: (Digital Railcards : Trainline Customer Service | Help, Support and FAQs (thetrainline.com) , or if you purchased your railcard through another provider, please contact that provider. If no railcard was held, please explicitly state this.

Please do not ignore this email. Assistance and guidance can be obtained on the internet and from the Citizens Advice Service, here: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/.

All the evidence available is being considered. If you consider that there are any explanations or mitigating factors that may influence our investigation, you are invited to include them in your response.


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[30907]

At this stage you should respond to the specific issue and supply details of your old railcards (I would advise not mentioning the Network Railcard either). I would expect SW to come back with a list of journeys made since your last Railcard expi4ed. However, it is possible that they will spot the doughnutting as well.

Either way, they generally will respond positively if you engage with them

You can follow the suggestions often made by member Hadders but don't imply that you only offended on the one occasion yo were caught.

 

[John R]

They have spotted the doughnutting. It’s mentioned in the first paragraph (last sentence).

 

[lonelyjam92]

Thanks both. Yes, when I was caught, the guy started probing me and I panicked and admitted to the offence of that day which was the short fare.

@30907 do you think only sending the valid railcards at this point is best and wait for them to point out the journeys where I didn’t have one?

Interested in @Hadders thoughts tagging - is there a thread that I can look at where Hadders has made suggestions on cases similar to this before?

Also should I keep the response formal for now and stick to facts, rather than going emotional and explaining how stupid I feel etcetc?

 

[Bungle158]

It's worth remembering that only courts issue fines. The operating companies, with the notable exception of TfL, prefer to recoup avoided fares and generally do so by means of out of court settlement, usually after trawling purchase history. That will include an admin fee, often in the c£150 region.

If you follow the advice given on this forum, there is a good chance you will achieve such a settlement. Be prepared though, to repay your avoided fares. Most companies do not allow for improperly purchased tickets and tend to apply maximum fares for each journey when deciding on the amount.

 

[lonelyjam92]

Thanks so much for your reply and help @Bungle158 - ah so are you suggesting that they would want to recoup the full fair each time, rather than just the difference (33%) plus admin fee?

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks so much for your reply and help @Bungle158 - ah so are you suggesting that they would want to recoup the full fair each time, rather than just the difference (33%) plus admin fee?

Full fare at punitively expensive anytime fare. No allowance given for part paid fares usually. Otherwise why would anyone ever pay unless they were caught if they knew they only had to pay the difference.

There has to be an incentive to buy a legitimate ticket every time.

You need to take this very seriously. It’s a crime and you are potentially on a pathway to criminal prosecution in the magistrates court.

Your response should be formal but apologetic. You need to convince them you have learned a serious lesson and won’t ever be doing this again. Think pleading with them for their sympathetic consideration not to prosecute and to allow you to settle this out of court.

 

[lonelyjam92]

Yep, sadly that makes sense.

From some of the other threads, I can see after the first correspondence some people have made an offer for settlement. Currently they are just asking for my railcards, which I can send for up to December 2024. From there, I only have Network Railcard which is invalid for the time of day I was travelling.

Should I just share the railcards and not comment on the fact I don’t have one for the journeys after December ‘24 - or should I point that out, admit my mistake, point to the fact I haven’t re offended since I was caught, calculate my journeys since then and make an offer based on that? This may help them swerve further looking at the doughnuting as they might see it as a quicker resolution route.

Or do I just send the railcards and wait to see what happens next…

Appreciate everyone’s help! I’ve got a bit of time as it was 7 days from 8am yesterday

 

[John R]

Thanks so much for your reply and help @Bungle158 - ah so are you suggesting that they would want to recoup the full fair each time, rather than just the difference (33%) plus admin fee?

Yes, and if you’ve been doing this for two years then it could add up to a four figure sum, depending of course on what journey you were making.

So unless you have lots of spare cash hanging around you’d be advised to look up the Anytime Single fare for your journey, multiply by two, and work out how many days you did it, to get an estimate of the total amount you’re likely to be asked for. (Don’t forget to add on £150 as an estimate of their admin fee too.)

Then think about where you might get hold of that sort of amount quickly, as if you get offered a settlement they will want it paid quickly, typically within 14 days.

Online transactions are convenient for fare dodging, but they don’t half leave a good audit trail for the investigators I’m afraid!

 

[WesternLancer]

Yep, sadly that makes sense.

From some of the other threads, I can see after the first correspondence some people have made an offer for settlement. Currently they are just asking for my railcards, which I can send for up to December 2024. From there, I only have Network Railcard which is invalid for the time of day I was travelling.

Should I just share the railcards and not comment on the fact I don’t have one for the journeys after December ‘24 - or should I point that out, admit my mistake, point to the fact I haven’t re offended since I was caught, calculate my journeys since then and make an offer based on that? This may help them swerve further looking at the doughnuting as they might see it as a quicker resolution route.

Or do I just send the railcards and wait to see what happens next…

Appreciate everyone’s help! I’ve got a bit of time as it was 7 days from 8am yesterday

Well, they are only asking for your railcards at this stage so there would be nothing wrong with providing those.

However, since they are also mentioning that they believe you did not have a ticket for the full journey there does seem some logic in addressing the point at this stage, but I'd welcome other peoples thoughts on that as @John R points out they have noticed it. If you just provide the Railcards I suspect they will come back and say 'well one of these wasn't valid anyway, and we also think you have been not paying for the full journey so....' - addressing that now might help bring the matter to a conclusion sooner rather than later and convince them you are co-operative which is the key to avoiding prosecution and obtaining an out of court settlement involving the fares evaded, from what we usually see here.

There letter to you is obviously a cut and paste of various standard letters they have covering the typical types of fare evasion that they discover all the time, (which leave easy to detect digital fingerprints behind).

The formula mentioned for replying that @Hadders suggests in general is one I have copied below from another thread (you can look at many other threads for examples of people's draft replies and it may be worth you looking at some threads involving SWR) and you should probably post your own draft of your intended response here for people to check and help you get it as good as it can be.

-------------
Copied from another thread:

Legally speaking, the railway company could prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they wanted to but they will normally offer an out of court settlement to people who engage with them and who haven't come to their attention before.

What happens next is they will write to you threatening prosecution but asking for your version of events before deciding how to proceed. When it arrives post a redacted copy of it in this thread along with your draft reply and forum members will proof read it for you.

I would mention the following points 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 administrative costs in dealing with the matter

Expect to have to pay the cost of the full Anytime Single fare(s) plus an admin fee, typically £150. Paying an out of court settlement might feel like paying a fine but technically it isn't a fine - only a court can impose a fine as a punishment upon conviction. You won't have a criminal record as a result of paying an out of court settlement.

 

[John R]

Bear in mind they were caught for having a short ticket, so I think it’s naive to assume that they will not address it. So I’m with @WesternLancer that mentioning it now will help bring everything to a quicker conclusion. (And maybe keep the admin cost down.) It also shows that you are being cooperative and open with them.

 

[lonelyjam92]

Okay thanks all. Hugely appreciated. I will draft a reply and share here. The doughnutting is quite extensive… so I’m thinking for now, I take the cost of short fare the one time I was caught and add that to the 3 months of invalid railcard usage, plus an admin fee and make that the offer - rather than admitting all the short fares at this stage?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Jul 2025 ==

I could be wrong, but the main reason they may noticed it for that one journey and are mentioning that is because that is the offence I was ‘guilty’ of when I was caught and I admitted it on the spot, but didn’t mention that I’d done it previously

 

[John R]

Okay thanks all. Hugely appreciated. I will draft a reply and share here. The doughnutting is quite extensive… so I’m thinking for now, I take the cost of short fare the one time I was caught and add that to the 3 months of invalid railcard usage, plus an admin fee and make that the offer - rather than admitting all the short fares at this stage?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Jul 2025 ==

I could be wrong, but the main reason they may noticed it for that one journey and are mentioning that is because that is the offence I was ‘guilty’ of when I was caught and I admitted it on the spot, but didn’t mention that I’d done it previously

You don't make an offer - and certainly shouldn't mention any figure. It's up to them to make an offer of an out of court settlement should they wish, and you need to ask very nicely if they would consider one in lieu of prosecution to encourage them to do so.

 

[WesternLancer]

Okay thanks all. Hugely appreciated. I will draft a reply and share here. The doughnutting is quite extensive… so I’m thinking for now, I take the cost of short fare the one time I was caught and add that to the 3 months of invalid railcard usage, plus an admin fee and make that the offer - rather than admitting all the short fares at this stage?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Jul 2025 ==

As mentioned - that's not the approach to take

Look at other letters

You need to end whatever you send them with a phrase along these lines for example

'I sincerely regret what has happened but I would be grateful if you could consider allowing me to resolve the matter without the need for court action. I would be prepared to pay any fare that I owe along with your costs in investigating this matter.'

I could be wrong, but the main reason they may noticed it for that one journey and are mentioning that is because that is the offence I was ‘guilty’ of when I was caught and I admitted it on the spot, but didn’t mention that I’d done it previously

Yes, this is because they already have enough on you for that incident to take it to court and secure a guilty verdict ie they caught you red handed, the rest of it is strongly suspected.

 

[lonelyjam92]

Hi all,

Thanks so much again for your support in this so far. How does the below sound?

Many thanks for your email.

I have attached proof of rail cards from October 2022 through to December 2024. I do not have a railcard for the period after that until March and for that I really am sorry. This is the first time anything remotely close to something like this has happened to me and I feel incredibly stupid. From the moment your officer drew this to my attention in March, I have realised the seriousness of the offence and have always bought valid tickets since that point. To say I have learnt my lesson is an understatement.

I hugely regret what has happened and would really appreciate the opportunity to settle this out of court if you would be willing to consider that? With me paying the outstanding fares covering that period plus any admin fees.

I am really very sorry again and this has been a big wake up call for me.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi all,

Thanks so much again for your support in this so far. How does the below sound?

Many thanks for your email.

I have attached proof of rail cards from October 2022 through to December 2024. I do not have a railcard for the period after that until March and for that I really am sorry. This is the first time anything remotely close to something like this has happened to me and I feel incredibly stupid. From the moment your officer drew this to my attention in March, I have realised the seriousness of the offence and have always bought valid tickets since that point. To say I have learnt my lesson is an understatement.

I hugely regret what has happened and would really appreciate the opportunity to settle this out of court if you would be willing to consider that? With me paying the outstanding fares covering that period plus any admin fees.

I am really very sorry again and this has been a big wake up call for me.

It needs more work IMHO

Personally I think you could make the tone more formal in general and that would be an improvement
Generally you have not drawn a clear distinction between the Railcard non renewal (was this a mistake and you forgot to renew it or were you no longer entitled to one?)
and the short faring - which needs to be in a separate paragraph, to show that you are addressing both points they are raising

so ref the Railcard:
be specific - March when? (insert at least the year - be specific - do not leave room for ambiguity if you can avoid that)

If you have bought a new Railcard - say so (because it shows you actively have done something to prevent the problem happening again) - and enclose a copy and state 'following the incident I purchased a new Railcard on xxx date to ensure this did not happen again, a copy of this Railcard is attached'. If you have not bought a Railcard yet but could do so - then buy one if you could use it to legitimately reduce travel costs

Ref the short faring:
Start a new paragraph and say something like

'I am also extremely sorry that I did not have a valid ticket for my full journey. From the moment your officer drew this to my attention in March, I have realised the seriousness of the offence and have always bought valid tickets since that point. To say I have learnt my lesson is an understatement.'

so try some edits to improve it - your last 2 paras are generally OK though I think. It's clear what you are asking for and that you are prepared to pay them to make things right - which is good.

 

[lonelyjam92]

Thank you for the feedback @WesternLancer - hugely appreciated! Please see revised below:

Thank you for your email.

Please find attached proof of my railcards from October 2022 through to December 2024. After that period, I had purchased a Network Railcard (as I was no longer eligible for the 26–30 Railcard), but I had stupidly left the 26–30 Railcard selected on my Trainline app. It was only after speaking with your officer in March 2025 that I realised this error and also became aware that the Network Railcard was not valid at that time of the morning. I sincerely apologise for this oversight.

This is the first time I have found myself in a situation of this nature, and I deeply regret it. I am also extremely sorry that I did not hold a valid ticket for my full journey. Since this was brought to my attention in March, I have fully understood the seriousness of the offence and have ensured that I purchase valid tickets at all times. To say that I have learned my lesson would be an understatement.

I take full responsibility for what has happened and would be sincerely grateful for the opportunity to settle this matter out of court, should you be willing to consider it. I am more than willing to cover the outstanding fares for the relevant period, along with any applicable administrative fees.

Once again, I offer my sincerest apologies. This has been a significant and sobering wake-up call.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you for the feedback @WesternLancer - hugely appreciated! Please see revised below:

Thank you for your email.

Please find attached proof of my railcards from October 2022 through to December 2024. After that period, I had purchased a Network Railcard (as I was no longer eligible for the 26–30 Railcard), but I had stupidly left the 26–30 Railcard selected on my Trainline app. It was only after speaking with your officer in March 2025 that I realised this error and also became aware that the Network Railcard was not valid at that time of the morning. I sincerely apologise for this oversight.

This is the first time I have found myself in a situation of this nature, and I deeply regret it. I am also extremely sorry that I did not hold a valid ticket for my full journey. Since this was brought to my attention in March, I have fully understood the seriousness of the offence and have ensured that I purchase valid tickets at all times. To say that I have learned my lesson would be an understatement.

I take full responsibility for what has happened and would be sincerely grateful for the opportunity to settle this matter out of court, should you be willing to consider it. I am more than willing to cover the outstanding fares for the relevant period, along with any applicable administrative fees.

Once again, I offer my sincerest apologies. This has been a significant and sobering wake-up call.

Looking much better now IMHO

Include the ref numbers from them of course

If you are posting it send it tracked postage from a post office - you may need to be able to prove you sent it and they received it

Keep copies of everything.

 

[lonelyjam92]

Thank you! They actually emailed me... so not through the post, so I'll be sending it back via email. As it's on a chain, I don't think any need for the ref numbers. Will keep you posted on their response.

Thank you for the support here.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Jul 2025 ==

Hi all,

So I've had my response back already and they have flagged the constant short faring and shared a list of transactions that they believe to be short fares. There are over 400 of these over the 3 years... the cost of paying back all of those at full fare is nothing less than terrifying. Obviously a court case would be even worse, but the amount that 400 fares would tot up to is a lot. I need to think about how to respond, but also does anyone have any similar cases where there has been a similar amount of short fare/wrongful transactions and do they come at you for the FULL AMOUNT as a settlement?

Feeling very stupid & naive now that I have been doing this for so long. Genuinely didn't realise the repercussions and that the data could all be accessed.

Copying their response in below:

Thank you for your email. The contents of your email have been noted and attached to your file.

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight a separate matter.

After further investigation, multiple tickets purchased using your Trainline account require clarification.

A spreadsheet has been attached that contains your travel history on the South Western Railway network. There are multiple highlighted rail tickets (highlighted in lavender) that require your immediate attention.

Please provide any contextual information that will provide clarity for the journeys in question. Send them to us at the above address using xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx in the subject line.

Your continued assistance on this matter much appreciated.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you! They actually emailed me... so not through the post, so I'll be sending it back via email. As it's on a chain, I don't think any need for the ref numbers. Will keep you posted on their response.

Thank you for the support here.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Jul 2025 ==

Hi all,

So I've had my response back already and they have flagged the constant short faring and shared a list of transactions that they believe to be short fares. There are over 400 of these over the 3 years... the cost of paying back all of those at full fare is nothing less than terrifying. Obviously a court case would be even worse, but the amount that 400 fares would tot up to is a lot. I need to think about how to respond, but also does anyone have any similar cases where there has been a similar amount of short fare/wrongful transactions and do they come at you for the FULL AMOUNT as a settlement?

Feeling very stupid & naive now that I have been doing this for so long. Genuinely didn't realise the repercussions and that the data could all be accessed.

Copying their response in below:

Thank you for your email. The contents of your email have been noted and attached to your file.

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight a separate matter.

After further investigation, multiple tickets purchased using your Trainline account require clarification.

A spreadsheet has been attached that contains your travel history on the South Western Railway network. There are multiple highlighted rail tickets (highlighted in lavender) that require your immediate attention.

Please provide any contextual information that will provide clarity for the journeys in question. Send them to us at the above address using xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx in the subject line.

Your continued assistance on this matter much appreciated.

Thanks for this update - presumably you don't dispute the contents of the spreadsheet? If yes, it's probably more sincere apologies, a clear commitment that you have changed your ways and will not be doing this again, and an offer to pay what's owed.

If not, and you think these were legit fares, or some of them were then you can try to make that point to them - they may accept it if you can give plausible supporting evidence or context (eg you had a job near station x so legitimately went there at the time)

The +ve side of this is that if they are asking you about this they are probably minded to offer an out of court settlement (as opposed to prosecuting you)

The -ve said is it's a lot of money.

But yes, you will find other cases on here where large sums have been requested in one go for prompt payment - basically they want their money back, as much as they can get and they don't want to administer long term debt management issues - they want to run a railway not a low cost lending system....

BUT

We have seen occasional cases from SWR where high sum demands are accompanied by the suggestion that if you can't afford to pay the settlement offered SWR recommends a debt handling company. We've not had feedback on what that involves but I assume it's some sort of company that lends you the money which you re-pay them at presumably punitive rates of interest over time.

You probably need to talk to trusted friends or family to see if you can borrow from them instead in the first instance.

If you can not accept such an offer they will just escalate to prosecution - it's possible that the sentencing guidelines could result in a court fine and costs etc that is lower than the evaded fares total (but it would involve a criminal record which can presumably result in costs in other areas of life that might be avoided if you do not have such a record....) - but court fines are related to an income formula and can also be paid to the court in installments - enforced by things like court bailiffs / attachments of earnings orders etc of course if instalments are missed.

Have a think of the draft you want to send in reply to them.

 

[lonelyjam92]

Thank you for the quick reply.

For the vast majority of those fares, I validly held a railcard which they have previously queried. Do you think their settlement offer would take this into consideration, and it would be a settlement figure of all the fares, at railcard price rather than the full fare?

 

[odetoboy]

Thank you for the quick reply.

For the vast majority of those fares, I validly held a railcard which they have previously queried. Do you think their settlement offer would take this into consideration, and it would be a settlement figure of all the fares, at railcard price rather than the full fare?

from what i’ve read, in most situations, the company will adjust the settlement figure to reflect the fact you held a valid railcard; removing any journeys that were therefore valid.

any fares that remain invalid would be at the full Anytime Single fare, and in case of a return it would cost two of these. they would not pay credence to your railcard in this case.

edit: see AlterEgo’s correction below.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you for the quick reply.

For the vast majority of those fares, I validly held a railcard which they have previously queried. Do you think their settlement offer would take this into consideration, and it would be a settlement figure of all the fares, at railcard price rather than the full fare?

sorry but I'm not sure what you mean

A) are you saying that for the period you held a railcard the ticket was also valid for the whole of the train journey undertaken? - if so I would expect them to remove that entry because you have shown your ticket was valid because you had a valid railcard

or

B) are you saying that you had a valid Railcard, which you discounted for the ticket, but the ticket was not valid for the whole journey (but you would like to get 33% off the price of the part of the journey they are now charging you for, but that you didn't have a ticket for because you did have a Railcard)

or

C) something else

and

D) can you proove to them you had a Railcard if they demand proof

 

[AlterEgo]

from what i’ve read, in most situations, the company will adjust the settlement figure to reflect the fact you held a valid railcard; removing any journeys that were therefore valid.

any fares that remain invalid would be at the full Anytime Single fare, and in case of a return it would cost two of these. they would not pay credence to your railcard in this case.

The OP’s been short faring. No account will be taken of any railcard in the settlement for these offences. None of the fares they’ll ask for in settlement will have a railcard discount; it’ll be the full rate regardless of whether a railcard was held or not n

 

[odetoboy]

The OP’s been short faring. No account will be taken of any railcard in the settlement for these offences. None of the fares they’ll ask for in settlement will have a railcard discount; it’ll be the full rate regardless of whether a railcard was held or not n

whoops, thats what i get for skim reading. thank you for the correction!

 

[lonelyjam92]

Thanks all. @WesternLancer it's your point B and yes, I've already emailed them proof of the railcard. As I'm sure you can understand, I'm doing my best to minimise the settlement figure for obvious reasons as currently it's looking insanely large...

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks all. @WesternLancer it's your point B and yes, I've already emailed them proof of the railcard. As I'm sure you can understand, I'm doing my best to minimise the settlement figure for obvious reasons as currently it's looking insanely large...

Thanks - I don't think they will offer you 33% discount on the evaded section of the journey I'm afraid (not sure if they would even accept the tickets for the bits you did pay as valid but presumably that is something you can already see from what they have asked you for)

 

[lonelyjam92]

I hear you, I assume asking for them to take this into consideration in my email when asking to settle out of court isn't recommended?

 

[SuspectUsual]

I hear you, I assume asking for them to take this into consideration in my email when asking to settle out of court isn't recommended?

You can ask, but (1) you need to phrase it right and not have it seem like a demand, and (2) fully expect them to say no. But if you don’t ask you don’t get. Shy bairns get nowt, as my missus likes to say

 

[John R]

Given the £12 minimum fare, would a railcard be of any use anyway.

Like others I can’t see them agreeing to discount the fare for a railcard though.