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Hi, I'm so anxious and worried. My husband usually buys a monthly pass to waterloo and regularly goes in. The other day I used it for the first time and got caught because my railcard number didn't match. I don't often use the train and when I do, I buy through the trainline app.
My question is: will they think this is a regular thing I do and prosecute me or will they give me a penalty?
I have definitely leaned my lesson to not even think of doing this again. It's been such a horrible experience.
One point of clarity please, when you say railcard numbers don't match, do you mean the photo card, or are you saying he has a railcard, eg senior, veteren, young person etc.
Unless you have told them about it, they will not know you have a train line app and account, if the ticket used was bought through another retailer.
I mean the photo card. He usually buys a paper monthly ticket.
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I should also point out that in a moment of panic, I told the officer I had accidentally taken his card instead of mine. This was not true as I don't have one.
I mean the photo card. He usually buys a paper monthly ticket.
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I should also point out that in a moment of panic, I told the officer I had accidentally taken his card instead of mine. This was not true as I don't have one.
I wouldn’t worry about that too much. They will be very used to people lying when caught. What’s more important is that you are honest and cooperative in any dealings with them when they get in contact with you.
I presume we are talking about South Western Railway if you were stopped at Waterloo?
I wouldn’t worry about that too much. They will be very used to people lying when caught. What’s more important is that you are honest and cooperative in any dealings with them when they get in contact with you.
I presume we are talking about South Western Railway if you were stopped at Waterloo?
I guess you could consider the period of uncertainty and anxiety part of the price you have to pay for fare evasion.
Most first offences are dealt with by an out of court settlement, unless there are other factors that make them lean toward prosecution (abuse of staff might be one, just as an example). So hopefully if you are apologetic, cooperative and honest you will be offered one.
If they did not issue you with a Penalty Fare on the spot (what you may think of as a fine) it is not likely that they will send you a fine through the post now. They will write to you with a letter that looks like a threat to prosecute but asks for your side of the story - this is your chance to apologise and ask if they will be kind enough to consider allowing you to settle the matter without court action - which if they agree will mean you paying a sum to reflect the fare evaded and the cost of them investigating your misdemeanor.
See many other threads for examples of this.
When you get that letter, head back here for advice on what to do and how to reply to maximise your chances of not being prosecuted. It is vital you respond to them about this or it will escalate to prosecution automatically - but you can avoid that if you engage.
Do have a look at other threads on here to get the idea of how this tends to play out and what you can expect to happen from this point.
I assume they asked for your name and address and you gave them a correct postal address where you can be contacted at for at least the next 6 months?
People here on the forum will give you good advice at each step of the process so as to minimise the problems you could now face, so hope that helps you to know.
A lot a posters on here say it was the first time they done something when caught, without doubting what you are saying, what we're the circumstance you were caught? Was it like a revenue block and they were checking everyone or could it have been targeted and they may have evidence if previous misuse ie cctv etc
When was the last time you had a monthly pass or similar that required a photocard?
If they did not issue you with a Penalty Fare on the spot (what you may think of as a fine) it is not likely that they will send you a fine through the post now. They will write to you with a letter that looks like a threat to prosecute but asks for your side of the story - this is your chance to apologise and ask if they will be kind enough to consider allowing you to settle the matter without court action - which if they agree will mean you paying a sum to reflect the fare evaded and the cost of them investigating your misdemeanor.
See many other threads for examples of this.
When you get that letter, head back here for advice on what to do and how to reply to maximise your chances of not being prosecuted. It is vital you respond to them about this or it will escalate to prosecution automatically - but you can avoid that if you engage.
Do have a look at other threads on here to get the idea of how this tends to play out and what you can expect to happen from this point.
I assume they asked for your name and address and you gave them a correct postal address where you can be contacted at for at least the next 6 months?
People here on the forum will give you good advice at each step of the process so as to minimise the problems you could now face, so hope that helps you to know.
Hard to predict - depends on workloads in their back office - ppl often ask this - certainly likely to be a few weeks or more than a month and easter hols coming up won't help. You need to watch out carefully for hard copy post as you are actually expected to reply quickly - eg 14 days to reply after they send it to you.
Up to 6 months is often said as this is a backstop deadline for them to prosecute in court I think, but they would usually not leave this until the last deadline so I would expect you should hear from them well before 6 months. This stuff is usually done by post, but if you gave them an e-mail address keep an eye on that and on spam box too.
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In terms of further points that may be of use to you -
- have a look at general replies from @Hadders that set out a useful format for the sort of approach you need to use when replying to them, in order to try and seek an out of court settlement - many threads will have that info.
- SWR seem reasonable about settling, so long as they can't find a persistent history of evasion related to you or your husbands tickets.
- If they offer a settlement instead of court prosecution you will need to be ready to pay it very quickly and in full. You can expect to pay the full Anytime Ticket price fare for the journey plus an 'admin fee' of maybe c£150.
- If they can link your details to your Trainline ticket purchasing records (or any other ticket selling site) they may check that for signs of any other ticket purchasing that looks suspicious to them, so you should be aware that could happen (but you say you don't use trains often and this is the first time you have mis-used that season ticket).
Hope this helps by way of you preparing for the process. But do not over worry as advice here will help you with the process as it progresses.
