Unaware of Prosecution and submitting Statutory Declaration - West Midlands Rail

[ledw12]

Date of Offence: 29th July 2024
Offence: Entered a train in a non-compulsory ticket area for the purpose of travelling on the railway without having with you a valid ticket for your travel. Transport Act 2000, in accordance to Railways Act 2005
Station departed: Aston
Station Arrived: Birmingham New Street
Date the charge sheet was posted: 10th Jan
Date the Notice of fine and collection order was issued: 14th Jan
Date Notice of fine and collection order was received: 26th Jan

Initial Situation:
I travelled from Aston station in Birmigham to Birmingham New Street which is 1 or 2 stops away. I forgot to get a ticket for this journey and bought one as I arrived at the barriers, but a Revenue protection officer scanned my ticket and thought I was attempting to buy a ticket closer than the actual stop I got on at which I assume is fair evasion? This is because my address is quite far away from Aston (A good 10 or so stops) but still along the same train line. He saw I made the journey a few times as well which added to his accusation. I traveled from Aston that day as it is the closest station to Birmingham outside the ULEZ zone and my parent has a car that you would need to pay to enter, so we thought this would be the easiest solution. I have traveled from Aston before with friends due to similar circumstances and have just parked nearby (There is no official parking but a few roads around that do). During the questioning, the Revenue officer asked me where I started my rail journey. I said the location of my house as i was a bit flustered, but not the exact station as i thought he said "Where did you start your journey?".

Prosecution Situation:
I am a University student so I live at University in term time. My parents just notified me a letter that was the Notice of the fine and collection order which they'd just found from West Midlands rails. After asking them to see if they'd missed anymore letters meant for me, they found the initial charge sheet which i think is the notice of the intended prosecution and Single Justice Procedure. I missed the court hearing and the opportunity to submit a form to plead Not Guilty or Guilty due to not receiving these letters. I've done some research and found I need to submit a Statutory Declaration if i want the reverse the court finding but it also says if they find me guilty again I could have added fines or something along those lines so I am a bit lost on what to do or what other parties to contact. I thought I would receive an email or letter from the train company where i could submit evidence or appeal before they prosecuted but my parents haven't been able to find this. Both West Midlands rail and The Magistrates court have only used letters and I've had no calls or emails even though i gave both to the Revenue officer. Should I attempt to contact West Midlands rail about this? Is it even worth attempting to fight the case if i have very little evidence aside from my statement and a witness statement from a parent plus I said i didn't travel from Aston, even if i did mishear? If anyone has any advice on who to contact or what to do that would be much appreciated as it is quite stressful

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Jan 2025 ==

Additional Information: Fine to be paid is £478

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Welcome to the forum!

Unless £478 is trivial to you, it's probably worth getting involved in the process: as you've identified, you are able to make a statutory declaration (although note that the window allowed for this now that you know that the prosecution happened is quite short - someone will be along shortly to confirm if it's 14 days or 21 days) and that will at worst lead to the case being heard again by the magistrates. On the basis of what we see here, I don't expect it to lead to the fine due increasing: given that as a student you're probably on a low income, if anything it's likely to lead to a reduction in the amount you have to pay - that's because fines are based on your income, but if you don't respond to the court, they assume that you have a fairly high income and so set a fairly high fine. It's also possible (but not certain) that you may be able to engage with the railway and they may let you settle this matter out of court once the statutory declaration has (temporarily) wiped the slate clean.

 

[ledw12]

Thanks! I'll definitely submit the statutory declaration. If the option to settle out of court is not available and I try to fight it (plead not guilty), are there any resources that could help with this or any threads anyone might have seen with any successful appeals?

 

[Titfield]

Thanks! I'll definitely submit the statutory declaration. If the option to settle out of court is not available and I try to fight it (plead not guilty), are there any resources that could help with this or any threads anyone might have seen with any successful appeals?

Submitting a statutory declaration simply winds the clock back to before the court hearing. A new hearing date will be set in due course. What you should do once the Statutory Declaration has been submitted is to use the time this buys you (before the new court date) to approach the train operating company, tell them you have submitted a Stat Dec and then ask if they will consider offering you an out of court settlement. Normally to convince them to do this you will need to (1) apologise and be contrite (2) demonstrate that you know this was wrong and that you wont do it again (3) say you will pay the fares avoided and the administration costs they have incurred.

I have read your account of what happened, namely that you were not fare evading and had simply travelled part way by car. I am not passing judgement on this but if this was indeed the case then you will absolutely need to convince the train operating company that this is indeed how you travelled. They will take some convincing, so at the very least you would need witness statements etc.

Unfortunately buying a ticket on arrival (ie having boarded a train without a valid ticket) is an offence in itself so even though you may be able to prove that you travelled from Aston there is still the problem of the no ticket offence. They will view this as a "pay when challenged".

If it was me, and I accept that there may be other views, I do not think you will be able to convince them that you drove part way and therefore it is probably best to follow the guidance in my first paragraph. If you can convince them to offer you an out of court settlement the cost will be the full one way fare for each journey plus an admin fee of C£100 - £200.

An out of court settlement will be cheaper than going to court because you will end up paying the costs as above (fares and admin)plus a fine based on your income (a notional level is set for students) and a victim surcharge. You will also have a conviction which may at least in the short term affect your prospects and be troublesome.

 

[RevenueProtect]

Most of the TOCS will accept an out of court settlement and I can confirm that WMT is one of them. I'd suggest that you write to their revenue protection team, inform them of the above and I have no doubt that you will find them very helpful. They will also be able to see that if you have historically always paid for tickets (either directly to them or via 3rd party rail ticket resellers such as trainline) that it was clearly a one off and they will be understanding.

 

[island]

Date of Offence: 29th July 2024
Offence: Entered a train in a non-compulsory ticket area for the purpose of travelling on the railway without having with you a valid ticket for your travel. Transport Act 2000, in accordance to Railways Act 2005
Station departed: Aston
Station Arrived: Birmingham New Street
Date the charge sheet was posted: 10th Jan
Date the Notice of fine and collection order was issued: 14th Jan
Date Notice of fine and collection order was received: 26th Jan

As others mention you can do a statutory declaration under section 16E within 21 days of learning about the prosecution. This will allow you to seek an out of court settlement.

An alternative to this would be to write to the fines officer at the court that convicted you enclosing a completed income and expense form MC100, asking for the fine to be reduced on the grounds that you are a student with little/no income (assuming that is in fact the case). This would usually result in the fine being cut to £60 and surcharge to £24. The costs and compensation element stay the same, and you'll still have a criminal conviction.

The statutory declaration and MC100 forms may be downloaded from the gov uk website.

Is it even worth attempting to fight the case if i have very little evidence aside from my statement and a witness statement from a parent plus I said i didn't travel from Aston, even if i did mishear?

This will not assist you. The offence you were charged with is entering a train without a ticket, and from what you said, you purchased a ticket approaching the barriers at your destination. So you are guilty. They have not charged you with the more serious offence of intentionally avoiding the fare.

Both West Midlands rail and The Magistrates court have only used letters and I've had no calls or emails even though i gave both to the Revenue officer.

Communication about important legal matters is habitually by post. It would be advisable to ensure that if you give your parents' address for correspondence about a matter, that you advise them to look out for such correspondence.

 

[ledw12]

Thanks for all the advice! I am in the process of submitting the Statutory declaration, but am unsure what the best way to achieve a settlement with the rail company out of court would be. As the Statutory Declaration requires a plea as well due to it being a Single Justice Procedure, if i were to plea guilty would that still allow me time to reach a settlement with the train company. If not, would I be better organizing the out of court settlement before submitting the Statutory declaration. If anyone has any advice on this or knows any threads with similar situations, it would be much appreciated

 

[island]

It would be most correct to say that you must serve a response to the single justice procedure notice at the same time as submitting the section 16E statutory declaration. An indication that you would pleas guilty is one possible such response, but not the only one.

Your response might well be to state that you are serving notice, under section 16B (2) of the Magistrates Court Act, that you do not desire to be tried under the Single Justice Procedure. That satisfies the requirement to serve a response, and will then result in the court office eventually sending you a summons to court instead. In the intervening period you can attempt to agree an out of court settlement.

There is no obstacle to you starting to negotiate such a settlement already, but the statutory declaration does need to go in before the deadline of 21 days after you became aware of the case.