Southeastern prosecution letter

[captivant]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to write to you about my experience and hopefully get some advice. It has been the source of so much anxiety. I really want to sort this out.

About 10 months ago I was stopped at a station in Kent by an inspector when trying to tap through the gates. They had realised I bought a ticket that was from a closer station to my destination than my boarded station. They gave me a MG11 receipt and told me to expect a letter.

It was around 10 months later when I received a letter that I will attach. It stated how there was an "incident" that had occured on the date it happened, my case is being reviewed and I may face legal prosecution. They had invited me to respond with comments about the situation and I have 21 days to respond.

That was a scary read and has given me recent anxiety. I have done some research and found some information about cases like these. I read that dealing with this proactively and opting for a payment plan or pay whatever penalty is optimal. But also I'm concerned about digging a deeper hole. I am also concerned about this 21 day time limit to respond and the possible repercussions. Reading through this forum has been very helpful for me.

I would grateful for your expertise and any information that I should know.

I have attached a photo of the letter below. It was sent on 29/09/26 but only got to me on 05/10/2026.

 

[WesternLancer]

Welcome

You are right to take this seriously.

However, the typical / usual legal action that railway companies use in relation to fare evasion requires them to bring a case to the magistrates court within 6 months of the date of the incident for the criminal offence related to travel without a valid ticket - which they have failed to do given this happened 10 months ago. Nor are they even stating what the 'incident' concerned was.
After those 6 months they do still have the option of using a civil court to pursue what they believe you owe as a debt - which is much less serious for you than it being pursued as a criminal matter.
There remains the option to them of court action for fraud (and that would be very serious) - and that does not have a 6 month limit - but I don't think we have seen cases on the forum of that being used against people who have come here for advice.

There have been a few similar cases involving SE Trains on the forum in the last week or so - these two threads will be worth you reading through to see the views of experienced forum members on this. You will see several advocating that you don't engage with this and by implication wait to see what happens next.

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Have a good read of those and of course post any questions that occur to you / things you would like a view on and people here will no doubt give you good information.

When is the 21 days deadline up? That hopefully gives you time to consider advice, weigh up your options and decide what you want to do.

Hopefully after you were stopped at that time you have since bought correct tickets for all your rail travel....

 

[Swedenorer]

As above the first thing is that they are out of time to prosecute you for travelling without a valid ticket - they should have started the process by 5th June.

It all looks very vague - the word incident is unusual in this context and I would say inappropriate and could imply anything.

On that subject what details have they asked you for? Is there another sheet to this letter which you have not posted?