TfW Retail Fraud Team: Misuse of Return Tickets

[onsdera]

Hi all,

Looking for some advise on how best to approach an email I've received from TfW Retail Fraud Team. I have 14 days to respond and I've yet to reply.

I used to live in Wales with my parents and met a girl in Manchester, I travelled frequently back and forth via train last year while I was still in collage to see her. I used the trainline app on my phone to buy open return eTickets. Normally after my ticket had been scanned by the ticket inspector on the train it would disappear from my trainline app, but sometimes this would not happen and I could use it again. This has since comeback to bite my stupid ass a year later with the below email.

Note I was 17 at the time, but 2 of the journeys they are asking details about I had since turned 18. Also I no longer live at my parents in Wales but I have been back since and not had any post about this at all, only this email, my address was not on the email only my name.

Suspected Misuse of Off-Peak Return Tickets

Good afternoon,

This office is the investigating authority for Transport for Wales Rail Limited.

You are receiving this email because your recent travel activity has been brought to our attention following a review of your ticket purchasing and usage history.

Our records indicate that you purchased an Off-Peak Return ticket and have subsequently used the return portion of those tickets on multiple occasions after it had already been used to complete a return journey.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you hold a valid ticket for every journey you undertake and that it is purchased before travel where facilities exist to do so.
The ticket identified were Off-Peak Open Return tickets. While the return portion remains valid for up to one calendar month from the date of the outward journey, it is valid for one return journey only between the origin and destination shown on the ticket. Once the return journey has been completed, the return portion has no further validity and cannot be used for additional travel.

Our records suggest that the return portion of the ticket was used on subsequent days after the return journey had already been completed. As a result, those tickets were not valid for the later journeys undertaken, and separate valid tickets should have been held for each occasion of travel.
It is your responsibility to understand and comply with the conditions of the tickets you purchase and use.

At this stage, I would like to provide you with an opportunity to explain the circumstances surrounding these journeys. Please provide a full and truthful account outlining why you used the return portion of these tickets on multiple occasions.

T****** Shotton to Eccles (Manchester) (X2)
T****** Eccles (Manchester) to Shotton (X2)
T****** Eccles (Manchester) to Shotton (X1)
T****** Eccles (Manchester) to Shotton (x1)
T****** Shotton to Eccles (Manchester) (x1)

7 journeys beyond the scope of the tickets validity.

If your response does not provide a reasonable explanation, or if you choose not to respond, We may consider progressing the matter through legal channels. This could include prosecution under one or more of the following provisions:
Regulation of Railways Act 1889, Section 5(3)
If any person:
(a) Travels or attempts to travel on a railway without having previously paid the appropriate fare, and with intent to avoid payment; or
(b) Having paid a fare for a certain distance, knowingly and wilfully proceeds beyond that distance without having paid the additional fare due, and with intent to avoid payment.
Fraud Act 2006, Section 2 – Fraud by False Representation
A person commits an offence if they:
(a) Dishonestly make a false representation; and
(b) Intend, by making that representation:

• To make a gain for themselves or another; or
• To cause loss to another, or expose another to a risk of loss.

Before any decision is made regarding how this matter will proceed, I would like to offer you the opportunity to provide any mitigating circumstances that you believe should be taken into consideration.
You may wish to seek independent legal advice from a solicitor experienced in criminal law. It may also be beneficial to seek advice from a solicitor with experience in railway fare enforcement matters.
Please send your response to:
retail.fraud@tfwrail.wales
If we do not receive a response within 14 days of the date of this correspondence, the matter may be progressed further using the information currently available to us. This may include referral to the British Transport Police and/or the commencement of legal proceedings.
Yours sincerely,

Retail Fraud Team

 

[tatitiliti]

Hi all,

Looking for some advise on how best to approach an email I've received from TfW Retail Fraud Team. I have 14 days to respond and I've yet to reply.

I used to live in Wales with my parents and met a girl in Manchester, I travelled frequently back and forth via train last year while I was still in collage to see her. I used the trainline app on my phone to buy open return eTickets. Normally after my ticket had been scanned by the ticket inspector on the train it would disappear from my trainline app, but sometimes this would not happen and I could use it again. This has since comeback to bite my stupid ass a year later with the below email.

Note I was 17 at the time, but 2 of the journeys they are asking details about I had since turned 18. Also I no longer live at my parents in Wales but I have been back since and not had any post about this at all, only this email, my address was not on the email only my name.

Don’t say anything in response to this or any follow-up emails. Not a word.

If they had enough evidence to prosecute, they would send you an NIP in the post. They are trying to get a written admission out of you.

And don’t reuse return tickets (especially ones with a barcode on which will hold scan data……).

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Don’t say anything in response to this or any follow-up emails. Not a word.

And don’t reuse return tickets (especially ones with a barcode on which will hold scan data……).

The OP may also wish to read

The 'fraud letters' process

If this is becoming standard Northern behaviour (I note a few threads on it here) then I’m deeply uncomfortable with it. Convictions on these charges can have huge impacts on people’s life, ability to work etc. and they shouldn’t be writing to people on the off chance that they might have done...

www.railforums.co.uk

which discusses what powers if any are held by TOCs when they have run a computer data scan without "apprehending" the traveller without a valid ticket.

Stop reusing tickets as they could attempt to catch you in the act.

 

[323235]

I don’t understand how you can use the return portion of an Off Peak Return multiple days for the same journey and the guard / guards machine not flag it when scanned or the barriers reject it.

 

[AlterEgo]

Indeed, no comment and no reply to the letter. And be sure you buy the correct ticket going forward!

 

[onsdera]

I don’t understand how you can use the return portion of an Off Peak Return multiple days for the same journey and the guard / guards machine not flag it when scanned or the barriers reject it.

There are no barriers at either station, guards have never said anything to me when scanning, the ticket would normally just disappear from my app the next day after they scanned it, just sometimes it didn't.

 

[SuspectUsual]

I don’t understand how you can use the return portion of an Off Peak Return multiple days for the same journey and the guard / guards machine not flag it when scanned or the barriers reject it.

Well, not every journey sees tickets get checked and not every station has barriers…..

 

[323235]

But if there was no barriers or guard check they’d never know.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

But if there was no barriers or guard check they’d never know.

Except that when buying online, the TOC's computer, the retailer's computer or both were watching and if TfW's investigating authority wanted something to do, they only had to ask.

 

[gray1404]

Do not reply to this correspondence. They will likely send a follow-up email as well when you don't respond and you can let us know what they say at that point. However for now and I stress do not respond. Should they send anything further do not respond to that either until you have got advice on the forum here.

 

[MisterChooChoo]

Except that when buying online, the TOC's computer, the retailer's computer or both were watching and if TfW's investigating authority wanted something to do, they only had to ask.

Ask what? Who would be able to tell if a ticket were used if it were never scanned at any point in the journey?

 

[John R]

Ask what? Who would be able to tell if a ticket were used if it were never scanned at any point in the journey?

The OP tells us it was scanned.

 

[waterpoo]

Reversing UK mobile rail tickets

The UK has used small credit-card sized tickets to pay for train travel for years and years, since long before I was born — originally theAPTIS ticket1,which...

eta.st

...The website also tells you how they have an electronic Ticket Validation Database (eTVD) that has a copy of all ticket scans at gatelines and by people using their app. This is the anti-fraud thing I mentioned at the very start; this sort of data is presumably very useful to revenue protection staff trying to figure out systematic fare evasion, like short-faring

What it doesn’t tell you, though, is that the app will also give you this information unauthenticated, with nothing more than a ticket’s ID (!)

This information can be quite disturbingly detailed, even pinpointing the exact username of the inspector who scanned you, where you were scanned, on what exact train service you were scanned, whether it succeeded, and a bunch more stuff...

This is quite an interesting, albeit technical, read on the data collected when scanning tickets.

 

[SaltAndVinegar]

And be sure you buy the correct ticket going forward!

…and from a different retailer, using a different email address and payment card if possible!


Absolutely do not engage whatsoever with this. They might not be able to identify OP as the person who actually travelled with these tickets, and engaging with the email may well give them the admission they need.

 

[323235]

The OP tells us it was scanned.

Yet no one brought up the fact the tickets had already been used when scanned after the first day. Why?

Isn’t that the whole purpose of guards scanning and barriers to prevent reuse on the spot rather than chasing after the fact with no evidence who it was.

 

[Titfield]

Isn’t that the whole purpose of guards scanning and barriers to prevent reuse on the spot rather than chasing after the fact with no evidence who it was.

You would think so but given the reports of out of date railcards being viewed and not challenged apparently not.

 

[Kite159]

..

Yet no one brought up the fact the tickets had already been used when scanned after the first day. Why?

Isn’t that the whole purpose of guards scanning and barriers to prevent reuse on the spot rather than chasing after the fact with no evidence who it was.

But that means dealing with the issue rather than being able to scan more tickets to get their pennies

It does happen by accident, especially with those apps/phones which shows the return ticket as available even though it's been used as it's still within date and that passenger has multiple open returns on their device

 

[BG2024]

Yet no one brought up the fact the tickets had already been used when scanned after the first day. Why?

Presumably the OP's tickets permit a multi-day break of journey on the return leg