SWR Travel Irregularity

[OoopsTicket]

Hello all,

I recently received a travel irregularities notice from a revenue protection officer. I’m just asking for some advice.

I was travelling between my home station to Waterloo which is less than an hours journey. I forgot to buy a ticket then purchased one half way through my journey.

The ticket I purchased was a super off peak from the station I had got one and to my destination. Therefore, I was not attempting to ‘donut’ or even pretend I got on at a station nearer to my destination.

I cooperated with the bloke and gave my address etc etc. I have ended up with a receipt which suggests they will review my simply deplorable action to decide whether it needs to be pursued/ investigated further.

Any advice on time lines and potential outcomes would be welcome.

 

[soccermad]

Welcome to the Forum

Unfortunately your ticket was not valid on that train as you purchased it after you got on the train

You can expect to hear by letter from SWT (assuming it was their service ?) anytime up to 6 months from now

Other forum members may be able to advise what typical time scales for a letter from SWT are currently.

SWT will probably check your travel history to try to identify any other suspicious journeys and ask about those

When you get the letter , post a redacted copy on here and we will give advise on what to respond with (and what not to say)

Ultimately they will likely settle by making an offer of an out of court settlement comprising the full single fare for each individual one way journey identified with no account taken of any fare already paid plus an Admin fee (likely to be £100 or so)

 

[jfollows]

Your action could be prosecuted as a criminal offence. It probably won’t be, but please don’t dismiss this as a possibility and engage with SWT in due course to ensure this does not happen.

 

[SECR 65]

It may be several months before the letter arrives. Make sure you check both post and emails (inc spam) regularly. I don't think SWR have as much of a backlog as some other operators, but at a guess it will be a good two months at least. If you've heard nothing in 4-5 months come back here and we can suggest possible actions you could take.

EDIT before pressing post: I've glanced at some other SWR threads and they have some of them got letters about 2 weeks after the incident.

 

[OoopsTicket]

Welcome to the Forum

Unfortunately your ticket was not valid on that train as you purchased it after you got on the train

You can expect to hear by letter from SWT (assuming it was their service ?) anytime up to 6 months from now

Other forum members may be able to advise what typical time scales for a letter from SWT are currently.

SWT will probably check your travel history to try to identify any other suspicious journeys and ask about those

When you get the letter , post a redacted copy on here and we will give advise on what to respond with (and what not to say)

Ultimately they will likely settle by making an offer of an out of court settlement comprising the full single fare for each individual one way journey identified with no account taken of any fare already paid plus an Admin fee (likely to be £100 or so)

Thanks very much for your reply. What do you mean by suspicious journey?

 

[AlterEgo]

Thanks very much for your reply. What do you mean by suspicious journey?

Journeys where it can be shown you had a ticket for only part of the journey or by comparing scan data to demonstrate they were purchased after boarding.

 

[OoopsTicket]

Journeys where it can be shown you had a ticket for only part of the journey or by comparing scan data to demonstrate they were purchased after boarding.

I understand, this shouldn’t be an issue. Thanks for the reply.