SWR Report for prosecution

[monkeykey79]

Hi all,
I was hoping for some advice, I short fared a trip on SWR from Waterloo to shepperton and instead went from waterloo to vauxhall, I truly understand the seriousness of this matter and and asking for advice on my response to the letter i received today, which states.

On Friday, 06 February 2026, a person giving the above name and address was questioned by a member of rail staff about an incident that occurred whilst on South Western Railway Limited property; Did travel on a Railway without having previously paid the fare with intent to avoid payment thereof.

Subsequently the matter has been reported to this office for further investigation.

All the evidence available is being considered as to whether legal proceedings are appropriate. If you consider that there are any mitigating factors or explanations that may influence any decision that may be made about this matter you are invited to respond, in writing or to prosecutions@swrailway.com, within 21 days of the date of this letter.

Please ensure that ALL details below are completed and returned to ensure our records are correct. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PAYMENT

Failure to respond to this letter will lead to the matter being progressed without further notification. If we do write to you again, we may seek a contribution to our costs of recovering the amount owed.

Yours sincerely,

Susan Gray
Debt Recovery and Prosecutions Manager

My response to this letter is this, please tell me if anything comes of wrong.

I am writing to you in response to your email regarding the incident on the 06 of February 2026, reference

I am truly sorry regarding my decision to purchase a short fare ticket, I acknowledge that I travelled beyond the validity of my ticket and that is unfair to the other train users, and to the revenue lost by the train company.

This will not happen again. I fully understand the importance of holding a valid ticket for the entire journey and since the incident I now make sure to pay the full fair and have also purchased a railcard.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond. I would like to respectfully ask whether this matter could be resolved without court proceedings. I would be grateful for the opportunity to pay the outstanding fair and any administrative costs required to settle the matter.

Please find personal details as requested

Yours faithfully,

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Apr 2026 ==

just so people are clear, my response to letter starts from I am writing to you in response and I will of course start the letter with Dear prosecution team, it just didn't paste over

 

[30907]

Instead of the first sentence, just put: Reference 123abc - makes it easier for the reader.

And pedantically, para 3 and 4, "fare" not "fair" both times.

 

[monkeykey79]

apart from those mistakes, does it read okay?

 

[30907]

apart from those mistakes, does it read okay?

Yes, sorry, should have said

 

[John R]

It looks fine to me too.

 

[monkeykey79]

does anyone know how long it will take for the prosecution team to respond after i email them back?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 May 2026 ==

Instead of the first sentence, just put: Reference 123abc - makes it easier for the reader.

And pedantically, para 3 and 4, "fare" not "fair" both times.

what is the reference number is in the subject heading for the email?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 May 2026 ==

Instead of the first sentence, just put: Reference 123abc - makes it easier for the reader.

And pedantically, para 3 and 4, "fare" not "fair" both times.

i now reads like this, is this what you meant by take out the first sentence?


Dear Prosecutions Team,

Reference

I am truly sorry regarding my decision to purchase a short fare ticket, I acknowledge that I travelled beyond the validity of my ticket and that is unfair to the other train users, and to the revenue lost by the train company.

This will not happen again. I fully understand the importance of holding a valid ticket for the entire journey and since the incident I now make sure to pay the full fare and have also purchased a railcard.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond. I would like to respectfully ask whether this matter could be resolved without court proceedings. I would be grateful for the opportunity to pay the outstanding fair and any administrative costs required to settle the matter.

Please find personal details as requested

Yours faithfully,

 

[30907]

Yes, that looks fine now - except that you missed the "fair" in para 3

 

[monkeykey79]

fixed that now thanks for catching it, do you know how long it will take for them to get back to me?

Yes, that looks fine now - except that you missed the "fair" in para 3

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 May 2026 ==

what was on the letter was a pdf, but what was written in the email was this

Good afternoon,

As per your request to receive any correspondence to also be sent via email, please find attached a letter for you to complete and return to us.

A copy of the letter has also been sent to the correspondence address you gave on the day you were spoken to by one of our colleagues

Kind regards

Prosecutions Admin Clerk

it is okay for me to reply to this email with the response i had you look over, correct?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 May 2026 ==

Yes, that looks fine now - except that you missed the "fair" in para 3

any advice you can give would be really appreciated

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 May 2026 ==

I will give an update once I hear back from them

 

[Fawkes Cat]

what was on the letter was a pdf, but what was written in the email was this

Good afternoon,

As per your request to receive any correspondence to also be sent via email, please find attached a letter for you to complete and return to us.

A copy of the letter has also been sent to the correspondence address you gave on the day you were spoken to by one of our colleagues

Kind regards

Prosecutions Admin Clerk

it is okay for me to reply to this email with the response i had you look over, correct?

It should be. The letter you told us about in post #1 allowed for a reply by email, so it looks as if SWR are happy to do that.

But you need to make sure your response gets there. Some train companies have email auto responders set up, so you may get an automatic acknowledgement: if so, hang on to that as it more or less proves that your email got to them. If you don't hear back from them like that, you might want to send a paper copy as well: take it to the post office and pay extra to send it tracked (I gather 'tracked 48' is the cheapest option): that way, you get proof that it was delivered.

 

[monkeykey79]

It should be. The letter you told us about in post #1 allowed for a reply by email, so it looks as if SWR are happy to do that.

But you need to make sure your response gets there. Some train companies have email auto responders set up, so you may get an automatic acknowledgement: if so, hang on to that as it more or less proves that your email got to them. If you don't hear back from them like that, you might want to send a paper copy as well: take it to the post office and pay extra to send it tracked (I gather 'tracked 48' is the cheapest option): that way, you get proof that it was delivered.

thanks so much for the help, i did send the email last night, but i did not receive any automatic acknowledgement from them, l also wanted to ask if i am fortunate enough to get an out of court settlement, will that show up on a DBS check?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 May 2026 ==

can anyone tell me if SWR prosecution teams response to my email will be if there accept me asking for an out of court settlement or if there more back and forth i have to go through?

 

[Elecman]

thanks so much for the help, i did send the email last night, but i did not receive any automatic acknowledgement from them, l also wanted to ask if i am fortunate enough to get an out of court settlement, will that show up on a DBS check?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 May 2026 ==

can anyone tell me if SWR prosecution teams response to my email will be if there accept me asking for an out of court settlement or if there more back and forth i have to go through?

No if you settle out/of court then it cannot appear on a DBS check as you’ve not been prosecuted and found guilty of any offence

 

[monkeykey79]

No if you settle out/of court then it cannot appear on a DBS check as you’ve not been prosecuted and found guilty of any offence

thank you so much for setting my mind at ease, i will give an update to their reponse from my letter, thank you all for your help

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 May 2026 ==

It should be. The letter you told us about in post #1 allowed for a reply by email, so it looks as if SWR are happy to do that.

But you need to make sure your response gets there. Some train companies have email auto responders set up, so you may get an automatic acknowledgement: if so, hang on to that as it more or less proves that your email got to them. If you don't hear back from them like that, you might want to send a paper copy as well: take it to the post office and pay extra to send it tracked (I gather 'tracked 48' is the cheapest option): that way, you get proof that it was delivered.

thanks for that, i sent the email and they haven't responded with a confirmation yet so I called them up and they said the email has reached them and because I already sent an email, i do not need to respond to the letter

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 May 2026 ==

hi again,

there have just responded to me saying that

Good afternoon ,

Thank you for your email and information.

We will review this matter again and write to you at the correspondence address that was given to us on the day, advising you of the next steps.

Kind Regards,

my question is this type of response normal?, i though they would have made a decision already, I'm hoping for an out of court settlement and they are taking a long time to decide

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 May 2026 ==

Does anyone know the likely end result of all this, most of the time it ends up being an out of court settlement, but is anyone aware of a time it went to court?

 

[WesternLancer]

hi again,

there have just responded to me saying that

Good afternoon ,

Thank you for your email and information.

We will review this matter again and write to you at the correspondence address that was given to us on the day, advising you of the next steps.

Kind Regards,

my question is this type of response normal?,

Yes. It’s just a holding reply

i though they would have made a decision already, I'm hoping for an out of court settlement and they are taking a long time to decide

They may be requesting ticket sales information from your regular retailer. This may take time.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 May 2026 ==

Does anyone know the likely end result of all this, most of the time it ends up being an out of court settlement, but is anyone aware of a time it went to court?

Apart from TfL cases were few train company cases going to court here. Presumably because people get decent enough advice here to get a better outcome.

But the railway companies do take many people to court tho I suspect that’s because such people think the railway is bluffing and ignore letters and emails from the railway company but the it escalates almost automatically.

 

[monkeykey79]

just to give an update, i was given an out of court settlement, I paid it immediately, I am now done with this and can move on. Thanks to everyone that gave advice it helped a lot

 

[30907]

just to give an update, i was given an out of court settlement, I paid it immediately, I am now done with this and can move on. Thanks to everyone that gave advice it helped a lot

Thanks for the feedback - it is as expected but speedier than some.

Out of interest, did they factor into the settlement other occasions of short faring or just the one when you were caught?

 

[monkeykey79]

i never said there were other occasions of short fairing

 

[omolola14]

i never said there were other occasions of short fairing

Congratulations to you, I always have to send them a letter, I will like to know if you typed and printed you letter, also when you sent the letter, did you send with the letter that was sent to you.

Thank you once again and getting a response from you will mean a lot to me

 

[30907]

i never said there were other occasions of short fairing

Indeed you didn’t, and I apologise for implying that you had.

 

[monkeykey79]

Congratulations to you, I always have to send them a letter, I will like to know if you typed and printed you letter, also when you sent the letter, did you send with the letter that was sent to you.

Thank you once again and getting a response from you will mean a lot to me

hi, so after the incident i asked for them to email me and also send a letter, i then corresponded through email because it was easier, faster and free, they said it was fine in the initial letter given to email prosecutions@swrailway.com, they still sent letters regarding next steps, but it was okay to email them on my end instead of sending a letter

 

[omolola14]

hi, so after the incident i asked for them to email me and also send a letter, i then corresponded through email because it was easier, faster and free, they said it was fine in the initial letter given to email prosecutions@swrailway.com, they still sent letters regarding next steps, but it was okay to email them on my end instead of sending a letter

Thank you very much for your swift response