Stopped for fare evasion but despite paying the correct fare

[warm_response]

This is a Reddit repost

Hey everyone,

I recently got stopped by a Revenue Protection Officer while travelling from Selly Oak to Birmingham New Street. I was in a rush and unable to buy a ticket from Selly Oak using the app — for some reason, it wouldn’t allow me to select that route. To make sure I had a valid fare, I bought a ticket from the next station (University) to Birmingham New Street instead, which was the same price.

The RPO still reported me for fare evasion, even though I explained the situation and had proof of payment. I’ve since found out that I may get a letter from the train company’s prosecutions team, even though I genuinely didn’t intend to do anything wrong.

I’m wondering:

Has anyone been in a similar situation where they were reported even though they paid the full fare?

Did anyone successfully get a fine waived or reduced?

What was the process like once you got the letter?


This is my first time being in any trouble like this, and I’d really appreciate hearing what happened in other people’s cases. I’m also fully ready to cooperate and apologise, just unsure
what to expect.

EDIT: I have only been told that I have been reported to prosecution who will look over my case. No fine or any papers have been handed to me as of yet.

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

Legally speaking, it is a criminal offence if you do not possess a valid ticket when you board the train. There are a few instances where you can legally board without a ticket, the main one being if there are no ticket purchasing facilities at the station where you board the train (i.e. an open ticket office or ticket machine that sells the ticket you want), but that's highly unlikelt to be relevent in this case.

The fact that the price of the fare from University and Selly Oak is the same is irrelevent. If you joined the train at Selly Oak then you must have a ticket from Selly Oak.

What will happen next is that West Midlands Trains will write to you saying that they have received a report and are threatening prosecution. The letter will ask for your version of events and comments before they decide how to proceed. WMT will normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with them and who haven't come to their attention before.

WMT will also audit your Trainline ticket purchasing history and if this indicates further irregaulaities they will ask you to comment on these as well.

There isn't much you can do until WMTs letter arrives. When it does post a redacted copy of it in this thread, along with your draft reply and forum members will proof read it for you. You'll find lots of cases involving WMT in this section of the forum so it might be worth having a look through.

One final thing - it could take several weeks for the letter to be sent and it's important that you can receice post at the address you gave. If you're going to be away for summer (I'm guessing you could be a student) then you might want to consider arranging for your post to be redirected.

 

[Pushpit]

That cluster of stations is one of the most frequent to come up in this forum for short fare evasion, so I'm pretty sure that WMT are well experienced in handling your specific scenario. I think you can assume they will be checking your digital records to see if anything else looks dodgy. If this really was a one-off event then you won't have anything to worry about in that area, but you can expect a hefty bill for travelling between Selly Oak and University without a ticket, accepting that you did have a ticket thereafter.