Southeastern Witness Statment

[Signer]

Hi

Yesterday I was caught by a Southeastern revenue officer at London Charing Cross station for short faring from my home station and given a witness statement.

I know this was utterly stupid and with hindsight I wish I had not done it

I have done this on and off over the last six months. From reading across this forum I am expecting to receive a letter with intent to prosecute over the next few weeks.

For obvious reasons I wish to settle this out of court and would happily pay back all the fares and admin costs in full. I am very anxious over this and am wondering on the best course of action

Should I wait to receive the letter and reply then.

Or should I email the prosecution team now with a full apology and state I would like to fully cooperate and if they would consider settling out of court.

Would providing all the dates of my travel with an incorrect ticket in a spreadsheet in the email been taken in a positive light?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[30907]

Wait till you get the letter.

Having the spreadsheet to hand will allow you to estimate what SE might ask you for by way of settlement.

 

[Cuthbert]

Hi

Yesterday I was caught by a Southeastern revenue officer at London Charing Cross station for short faring from my home station and given a witness statement.

I know this was utterly stupid and with hindsight I wish I had not done it

I have done this on and off over the last six months. From reading across this forum I am expecting to receive a letter with intent to prosecute over the next few weeks.

For obvious reasons I wish to settle this out of court and would happily pay back all the fares and admin costs in full. I am very anxious over this and am wondering on the best course of action

Should I wait to receive the letter and reply then.

Or should I email the prosecution team now with a full apology and state I would like to fully cooperate and if they would consider settling out of court.

Would providing all the dates of my travel with an incorrect ticket in a spreadsheet in the email been taken in a positive light?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Don't contact them as they won't know who you are without details and if you were caught yesterday good chance they have not picked it up yet.

The pro's on this forum will need to know the exact journey you made and where they interviewed you. Did they give you a receipt?
Southeastern are one of the many train companies they will settle out of court. They will charge a standard day single each journey you made where they think you short fared them.
So if you travelled and returned that's two Standard singles. A spread sheet of the ones you know are short fare will give you an estimate of how much they might ask.

They will also add an admin fee which is between £100-£200 but I think Southeastern is on the lower end.

When you get any correspondence slap it on here with personal details redacted and the reference number too.

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

Do not contact Southeastern ahead of their letter arriving. This is because you don't know what their letter is going to say and unsolicited contact could risk incriminating yourself.

When their letter arrives, come back here and upload a redacted copy of it along with your draft reply and we can assist with proof reading it for you.

 

[Signer]

Thank you for your quick responses

I will not contact them and wait for the letter.

I travel from high brooms which has no barriers to Charing Cross and would buy a ticket from Tonbridge or Sevenoaks to Charing Cross or from Waterloo east to Charing Cross when the train was busy and tickets weren’t checked

 

[Trainman40083]

Thank you for your quick responses

I will not contact them and wait for the letter.

I travel from high brooms which has no barriers to Charing Cross and would buy a ticket from Tonbridge or Sevenoaks to Charing Cross or from Waterloo east to Charing Cross when the train was busy and tickets weren’t checked

So basically buying a ticket from stations that do have ticket barriers, that you'd have to scan to get through....

 

[Haywain]

So basically buying a ticket from stations that do have ticket barriers, that you'd have to scan to get through....

Or buying tickets that are significantly more expensive than the simple and easy contactless option in the case of Waterloo East to Charing Cross.

 

[Trainman40083]

Or buying tickets that are significantly more expensive than the simple and easy contactless option in the case of Waterloo East to Charing Cross.

You can see why passengers are caught out.

 

[Haywain]

You can see why passengers are caught out.

Because they make it easy.

 

[Trainman40083]

Because they make it easy.

Yes. I'm sure I've read that on TfL barriers, some form of alert goes off, when something like a child or freedom pass gets used. So staff just look to see if they fit.

 

[Signer]

Hi I received the attached letter in the post today and have drafted a response. Please can you let me know you thoughts. Also is it best to email as well as send a letter?

Dear Debt Recovery & Prosecutions Team

I do not dispute the details of the letter and take full responsibility for my actions and wish to cooperate fully with you.

I would like to sincerely apologise for my actions and for any issues this has caused you. I deeply regret my behaviour and fully acknowledge the wrongfulness of my actions and will never purchase the incorrect ticket again

In order to demonstrate my determination of this, I have purchased the correct fares every single day since the incident at London Charing Cross. I am deeply sorry for what I have done and vow to never make this error of judgement again.

I would be most grateful if you would consider allowing me to settle this matter out of court. I would happily pay the cost of the fares avoided plus any of your administrative cost.

Again my apologies for the inconvenience this has caused.

 

[Hadders]

Hi I received the attached letter in the post today and have drafted a response. Please can you let me know you thoughts. Also is it best to email as well as send a letter?

Dear Debt Recovery & Prosecutions Team

I do not dispute the details of the letter and take full responsibility for my actions and wish to cooperate fully with you.

I would like to sincerely apologise for my actions and for any issues this has caused you. I deeply regret my behaviour and fully acknowledge the wrongfulness of my actions and will never purchase the incorrect ticket again

In order to demonstrate my determination of this, I have purchased the correct fares every single day since the incident at London Charing Cross. I am deeply sorry for what I have done and vow to never make this error of judgement again.

I would be most grateful if you would consider allowing me to settle this matter out of court. I would happily pay the cost of the fares avoided plus any of your administrative cost.

Again my apologies for the inconvenience this has caused.

I think you need to add a bit more detail. For example which stations you were travelling between, and mention what you actually did.

 

[Signer]

I think you need to add a bit more detail. For example which stations you were travelling between, and mention what you actually did.

Thank you for your help it’s very appreciated. Does the below sound better?


I am writing in response to your letter regarding the incident on the 19th February.

On that date I traveled from High Brooms to Charing Cross station without a valid ticket covering my full journey.

I would like to sincerely apologise for my actions and for any issues this has caused you. I deeply regret my behaviour and recognise what I did was wrong.
This has been a wake up call for me and I now fully understand the seriousness of the matter and its consequences to you and others and I guarantee I will never do it again.

In order to demonstrate my determination of this, I have purchased the correct fares for all my rail travel since that day.

I would be most grateful if you would consider allowing me to settle this matter out of court. I am willing to pay the cost of the fares avoided plus any of your administrative costs in full immediately.

Once again, I sincerely apologise for my actions and deeply regret any inconvenience this has caused you.

 

[John R]

I would drop the sentence about demonstrating determination. It would be pretty reckless of you to continue short faring given you are under investigation, so doesn't really count for much imo.

And rather than being willing to (it's not your call), I would just run the previous sentence on, "out of court by paying the cost..."

 

[Hadders]

The letter is fine, but I think it would be good to incorporate the suggestions made by @John R

Please do let us know how you get on.

 

[Signer]

Southeastern agreed to settle out of court and I have paid the amount due. Thank you all for your help, I really appreciated it

 

[RobertsN]

I am glad you were able to resolve this issue. As mentioned above, make sure to buy the correct tickets going forward as a repeat experience may make the TOC take a harder line if it believes you haven't leaned from the experience (BTW, this applies to any and all operators since they will share information as needed).

If you don't mind sharing, please let us know what the admin fees were and the avoided fares value. It will help our forum experts be able to give better advice on potential settlement costs going forward.