Southeastern Fare Evasion

[anon980]

Hello,

I have recently been caught fare evading by Southeastern (SE) as I purchased a ticket for a train line that did not cover the entirety of my journey. I used a fake railcard and have received a court summons under section 5(3) of the RoRA.

I have hired a solicitor to attempt to negotiate a settlement out of court. I have made fewer than 7 journeys with SE, and I am hoping that they will consider a settlement. However, I have a couple of queries:

a) Does SE have access to my travel history on their train line and can they see how many times I have infringed?

b) Does Southeastern communicate with other train services about irregular fare activity? I am worried that this issue might lead to another prosecution by a different train company.

I acknowledge my mistake and understand that there may be consequences. I suffer from severe anxiety and depression, and at the time I was caught, a family member had been diagnosed with cancer. I have used my entire savings, over £6000, to pay for their treatment. I am concerned that a criminal conviction could lead to the loss of my job, leaving me unable to pay for my family member's essential treatment.

 

[Titfield]

(a) Yes they do and yes they can.

(b) The Train Operating Company who stopped you will act on behalf of all Train Operating Companies as "one investigation and outcome" is the most effective and efficient way of dealing with fare evasion etc.

If you engage with the Train Operating Company (as outlined in many posts by forum expert @Hadders) there is a very good chance you can avoid prosecution.

EDIT having seen @Hadders post #3 I should add to my remarks that a reason why I thought you have a good chance of avoiding prosecution is that you have engaged a solicitor who collectively, based solely on the small amount of cases we see reported on this forum, seem to be able to achieve out of court settlements (albeit at a cost) where on the face of it we would envisage the cases going to court.

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

The train companies do have access to your online ticket purchasing history and they can and do work together on this sort of thing. All perfectly legal under GDPR as it’s for the prevention of crime.

Is the summons the first you heard from Southeastern about this? Normally they send an initial letter before asking for your version of events before they decide how to proceed. Did you get this letter? If so, did you reply and what did you say?

Being blunt, it sounds as though you’ve been engaged in large scale fare evasion, along with using a fake railcard. If something like this doesn’t end up in court then you do have to wonder how serious the level of offending needs to be to get prosecuted.

Can you post up copies of all the correspondence received and sent (with personal details redacted) so we can be certain if exactly what is being said.

 

[John R]

As you have engaged a solicitor then I would suggest that you take their advice in terms of how to respond to Southeastern's letter. I would though advise that if you are concerned about the risk of ticketing irregularities with other companies being picked up, you should make your solicitor aware of those concerns, as it may influence their recommendations.

My other more general comment is that if you suffer from severe anxiety it is likely to be detrimental to your condition to undergo any activity, rail related or otherwise, that breaks rules or laws and potentially exposes you to the situation you now find yourself in. So you might want to consider that going forward.