Hi,
A few weeks ago my partner was stopped my Thameslink officers on his daily commute from elephant and castle to farringdon. He usually buys his ticket on the train because it saves him time instead of in the house before he leaves, and he doesn’t tap in because he uses a railcard. Because it’s a short journey, he purchased the ticket on trainline roughly 5 mins before the train arrived.
They decided to stop him because according to them ‘the ticket had to be valid for 10 minutes before being activated’, despite us subsequently finding no evidence to back this claim up online. They gave him a witness statement (attached) and really went to town on him. For the record, his railcard was valid, but they didn’t ask to see this.
He is incredibly stressed because after he gave this details they got part of his address wrong, e.g., it was spelt ‘green laine’ instead of ‘greens lane’ (fake address). He thinks that because they got this wrong he won’t receive the letter detailing whether or not he gets a fine, and if he doesn’t respond to it they’ll take him to court, even though it was them who got the address wrong. The rest of the address was correct (postcode, flat number, city) and I have assured him that these details alone would be sufficient to deliver the letter.
He emailed them to clarify about the address, stating the case number and relevant details. They emailed a few days later to say they had trouble locating the case and to give them more details. He also tried to find his notice on the system but the reference they gave him said ‘could not be found’. We thought this was odd. He has not yet replied to the email as I told him to hold back until we get the opinion of people on here.
I guess our questions are 1) Do you think this case is defunct? Do they have no grounds to find him? The 10 minute expiry reason is so bizarre… I know you technically need to have a ticket before you travel but still. and 2) does he reply to them with more details? What if they can’t find the case? Does it mean it’s been dropped.
Any advice to reduce his anxiety would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Should clarify * before the train arrive into Farringdon. He was on the train when he purchased his ticket.
A few weeks ago my partner was stopped my Thameslink officers on his daily commute from elephant and castle to farringdon. He usually buys his ticket on the train because it saves him time instead of in the house before he leaves, and he doesn’t tap in because he uses a railcard. Because it’s a short journey, he purchased the ticket on trainline roughly 5 mins before the train arrived.
They decided to stop him because according to them ‘the ticket had to be valid for 10 minutes before being activated’, despite us subsequently finding no evidence to back this claim up online. They gave him a witness statement (attached) and really went to town on him. For the record, his railcard was valid, but they didn’t ask to see this.
He is incredibly stressed because after he gave this details they got part of his address wrong, e.g., it was spelt ‘green laine’ instead of ‘greens lane’ (fake address). He thinks that because they got this wrong he won’t receive the letter detailing whether or not he gets a fine, and if he doesn’t respond to it they’ll take him to court, even though it was them who got the address wrong. The rest of the address was correct (postcode, flat number, city) and I have assured him that these details alone would be sufficient to deliver the letter.
He emailed them to clarify about the address, stating the case number and relevant details. They emailed a few days later to say they had trouble locating the case and to give them more details. He also tried to find his notice on the system but the reference they gave him said ‘could not be found’. We thought this was odd. He has not yet replied to the email as I told him to hold back until we get the opinion of people on here.
I guess our questions are 1) Do you think this case is defunct? Do they have no grounds to find him? The 10 minute expiry reason is so bizarre… I know you technically need to have a ticket before you travel but still. and 2) does he reply to them with more details? What if they can’t find the case? Does it mean it’s been dropped.
Any advice to reduce his anxiety would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Should clarify * before the train arrive into Farringdon. He was on the train when he purchased his ticket.
