Thank you all for the clarity. When I receive their letter what would be the best course of action to move for an out of court settlement?
There’s some standard advice often given on the forum about the approach to take. I’ll aim to post a copy of it here for you later.
This is the standard advice often given as copied below - which you may find of help in learning more about that to expect and what you will need to do about it.
If you have any questions feel free to ask. Even if the below does not secure an out of settlement offer there are other opportunities to achieve that before it actually got to court prosecution - but one step at a time.
One thing you can consider doing at this stage, if you don't already have one, is buy a Railcard (but make sure you use it correctly) or, if it would work financially, a season or flexi season ticket - as this can then be something you can point to having done to legitimately reduce your travel costs when you reply to the railway - which is a way to convince them you have 'changed your ways' - which is what they want to be confident you have now done.
You also asked about impact on university (are you currently at university or did you mean applying to attend?), and for work in finance. If you secure an out of court settlement it's likely that you do not have to declare anything at all to anyone - tho I have read on here certain vetting processes for particular roles might ask if you had been or were under investigation for a criminal act - you'd have to see what the application process asked. Which would be the same for a university course application - see what it asks of you, especially if you are completing applications whilst the railway takes it's time to deal with this.
More generally - and I'm guessing it already has been - this should be a wake up call for you - because you really don't want something that probably saves you a relatively small amount of money - even if it may seem a fair bit when you are 18 - to set back future career earning prospects with salaries of £ k multiple.
Anyway - hope this is of help - here's the regular advice below:
----------------------------
Firstly, you committed a
criminal offence by travelling with an invalid ticket and railway companies are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they want to. The good news is they will normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with them and who haven't come to their attention before.
Next, what happens is the railway company will write to you. The letter will go to the address that you gave them / on any of your ID they checked so you need to be able to access hard copy post at that address as they often send things that way (but also check e-mail and spam). It is
extremely important that you reply, and you'll only have a limited time to do so (often 14 days from the date on their communication).
When you receive the letter 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 example letters you can use in this section of the forum
but the reply basically needs to mention:
- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident and will not do this again
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the railway company’s administrative costs in dealing with the matter
The railway will probably offer you an out of court settlement. Expect to have to pay the cost of the fare for the journey you made at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the invalid ticket you purchased. In addition they will charge an admin fee, typically £150.
They will also audit your online ticket purchase history and if this shows you've purchased other tickets that were not valid (eg railcard discounted tickets when you did not have a valid railcard, or tickets for only part of the journey, or tickets bought after boarding the train you travelled on ) they will probably factor the cost of these journeys into the settlement offer. Depending on how many journeys you've made over the period concerned this could end up being expensive.
Settlements usually have to be paid in full within a few days of them being offered so if money is tight you might want to think about how you will raise the sum required at short notice.
