Travel irregularities letter

[Skyangel]

Hello everyone,

I need advice on how to respond to this email I just received from great Anglia about irregularities in my journey. I have been buying tickets from ingestatone to Chelmsford but I have been getting on at London Stratford and getting off at Chelmsford with a job centre discount card even though I don't have one for the past 3months as money has been tight. I understand this was very wrong and won't be doing it again but I would like advice on how to respond and settle this out of court. I am willing to pay the outstanding fares and administrative fees. Attached is a copy of the letter. Please I would appreciate advice from anyone who has been in similar situations and how it was handled

Re: Trainline / UBER / Greater Anglia account
Following a review of your bookings, several travel irregularities were identified.
We are seeking to ascertain whether a valid ticket was held for these journeys.
We invite you to respond to this letter within 7 days by email to Fraud.Investigations@greateranglia.co.uk
quoting the reference number xxxxxxxx in the subject field.
In your response, please provide any statements or mitigations, as well as any supporting documentation,
that you would like us to consider in relation to this matter

 

[signed]

The forum likes to call this a fishing expedition, the overall recommendation is to ignore all such communications. And take it as a stark warning.

If they want to send you a formal letter, and then issue a SJPN or into a civil court, they'd likely be able to anyways

Do not close your Trainline/Uber/GA/other retailer account, they have the data, it won't disappear.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hello everyone,

I need advice on how to respond to this email I just received from great Anglia about irregularities in my journey. I have been buying tickets from ingestatone to Chelmsford but I have been getting on at London Stratford and getting off at Chelmsford with a job centre discount card even though I don't have one for the past 3months as money has been tight. I understand this was very wrong and won't be doing it again but I would like advice on how to respond and settle this out of court. I am willing to pay the outstanding fares and administrative fees. Attached is a copy of the letter. Please I would appreciate advice from anyone who has been in similar situations and how it was handled

Re: Trainline / UBER / Greater Anglia account
Following a review of your bookings, several travel irregularities were identified.
We are seeking to ascertain whether a valid ticket was held for these journeys.
We invite you to respond to this letter within 7 days by email to Fraud.Investigations@greateranglia.co.uk
quoting the reference number xxxxxxxx in the subject field.
In your response, please provide any statements or mitigations, as well as any supporting documentation,
that you would like us to consider in relation to this matter

It is important to know - have you ever been stopped at a ticket inspection in person and found to have an incorrect ticket?

If yes, when did that happen?

 

[Mattplans]

GA sends this email after a 'data trawl' where they look at purchased tickets and try to identify suspicious purchases/journeys where short faring (not buying a ticket for your entire journey) might be taking place, or perhaps the use of a railcard not many people are permitted for. For them to pursue this for prosecution, however, they would have needed to have stopped you while you were using the ticket, so it's important you answer the above question so we can advise you accordingly.

Also, have you replied to the email? If so, please send any replies you sent below.

If you have not been stopped by GA and you didn't reply to the email, these communications are generally safe to ignore. As said above, they don't have the leverage required to threaten prosecution. Of course, the forum will always advise you to stop fare evading. You're quite lucky if not yet caught as GA Inspectors are regularly at Stratford looking for people doing this type of evasion. You will get caught eventually and when you do, you've helpfully provided the investigators with a log of all the journeys you made and they can include this in any future out of court settlement (to avoid the alternative, prosecution)

 

[Swedenorer]

Please be aware if you have been stopped tell us ASAP as this changes the advice you will get here.

Otherwise foilow the post above.

 

[Skyangel]

It is important to know - have you ever been stopped at a ticket inspection in person and found to have an incorrect ticket?

If yes, when did that happen?

I have never been stopped by GA inspectors. I just got this email without ever been stopped or asked any questions by any GA officer

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

GA sends this email after a 'data trawl' where they look at purchased tickets and try to identify suspicious purchases/journeys where short faring (not buying a ticket for your entire journey) might be taking place, or perhaps the use of a railcard not many people are permitted for. For them to pursue this for prosecution, however, they would have needed to have stopped you while you were using the ticket, so it's important you answer the above question so we can advise you accordingly.

Also, have you replied to the email? If so, please send any replies you sent below.

If you have not been stopped by GA and you didn't reply to the email, these communications are generally safe to ignore. As said above, they don't have the leverage required to threaten prosecution. Of course, the forum will always advise you to stop fare evading. You're quite lucky if not yet caught as GA Inspectors are regularly at Stratford looking for people doing this type of evasion. You will get caught eventually and when you do, you've helpfully provided the investigators with a log of all the journeys you made and they can include this in any future out of court settlement (to avoid the alternative, prosecution)

I have not replied to the email yet. I am waiting to get some advice here on what to do.

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

I have never been stopped by GA inspectors

Please be aware if you have been stopped tell us ASAP as this changes the advice you will get here.

Otherwise foilow the post above.

 

[blimmo]

I am waiting to get some advice here on what to do.

The advice is to not respond. The only action you need to take it to start paying the correct fare before you board the train. You might want to switch ticket retailers too.

I know this sounds risky but the reality if they haven't stopped you they really don't have enough proof to prosecute you. Count this as your (only) warning to stop trying it on.

 

[WesternLancer]

From what we’ve seen before they will send you three or four more threatening letters or e mails as time goes on.

People here have advised that they should also be ignored. Then it stops as they give up.

Search the forum for other similar greater Anglia cases and have a read through them.
They need to be cases where the passengers were never actually caught red handed by an inspector or other railway official to be comparable.