WMR Short Fare Evasion

[catlover4488]

Hi, I have received an email from WMR after being stopped at Birmingham Snow Hill for not providing the correct ticket. I bought a ticket from Jewellery Quarter to Snow Hill and was interviewed at the station under caution. I didn’t receive a penalty fare at the time and was told to wait 4-6 weeks when WMR will be in contact. I’m not sure how to approach this so any help would be much appreciated!

“We have recently been handed a file relating to an incident on XXX June 2025 when approached by staff carrying out their revenue duties, you were asked to show your valid ticket you offered a ticket that was not valid for the journey you had completed, possibly committing short journey fraud.

You were interviewed under caution.

Further investigations into this matter have been carried out, including a review of the ticket records. It would appear, at this stage, that this may be a case of fraud. West Midlands Trains take travel fraud extremely seriously and is committed to prosecuting all cases of fare evasion to the full extent of the law. Travelling on the railway with the intent to avoid paying the full fare is an offence under the Regulation of Railways Act 1889. Such an offence carries a maximum fine of £1,000 and/or three months’ imprisonment and, in either case, a criminal record. It must also be considered whether this matter amounts to a much more serious offence under the Fraud Act 2006.

At this stage we would be grateful if you would provide any evidence to support the claim that none of the above legislation has been contravened to prevent further action being contemplated.

Please respond within 7 days from the date of this email so that we can determine next steps.

We look forward to hearing from you.”

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jun 2025 ==

@Hadders

 

[AlterEgo]

Have you been habitually short faring? If so, WMT have detected this from auditing your ticket purchasing history.

Where have you been travelling from if not Jewellery Quarter?

 

[catlover4488]

I know it’s a very stupid thing to do and I am so regretful that I have done this on many occasions. I have been travelling from either Rowley Regis or Cradley Heath

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

You're in a spot of bother here and West Midlands Trains are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they want to. The better news is they will normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with their investigation and who haven't come to their attention before.

I suggest writing a short, concise reply mentioning the following:

- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the train company's administrative costs in dealing with the matter

WMT will search your online ticket purchasing history and if this shows frequent purchase of Jewellery Quarter to Birmingham Snow Hill tickets they will want to factor the cost of these tickets into the settlement cost. I suggest searching your account history to discover how many times you've travelled with an invaid ticket and mentioning this in your reply as it might help to speed things up.

If you are offered a settlement expect to have to pay the cost of all the outstanding fares at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the invalid tickets purchased. In addition they will charge an admin fee, typically £175.

You'll find lots of example letters that you can base your reply on in this section of the forum. If you pop your dradft reply in this thread forum members will proof read it for you.

 

[catlover4488]

Dear Fraud and Investigations Manager,

I am writing in response to your email regarding travel fraud and would like to offer an explanation and apology for my actions.

I would like to begin with taking the opportunity to apologise to West Midlands Rail for my actions. The seriousness of my offence has not been taken lightly and I have learned a great deal from this incident. I'm extremely remorseful and deeply regret that this has taken place. I promise that this will never occur again.

This is a matter I am taking very seriously and have since purchased a rail pass for the correct and valid train ticket (please see evidence of this attached). Since the incident, I have been paying the full fare for my journeys and going forward, I will be paying all journey fare in full. This is a matter I have taken on with great care and diligence as I wish to be fully compliant with the laws and rules of the rail service.

I would like to ask that West Midlands Rail would kindly offer me the opportunity to settle this matter out of court? I would be extremely grateful for the opportunity to settle this matter quickly and prevent further action taking place. I take full accountability for my actions and have learned a valuable lesson from this, and I would like to make full payment for all outstanding fare and for the administrative costs in dealing with this matter.

How does that sound?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@catlover4488. Welcome to the forum. An Anytime Day Single from Rowley Regis to Birmingham Stns is currently £3.70. From Cradley Heath it's £5.40. From Jewellery Quarter (last stop before Birmingham Snow Hill) it's £3.00. If you are able to negotiate an out of court settlement with West Midlands Trains, and it's entirely their choice to offer you one, you could perhaps expect to have to pay them the full undiscounted fare, probably calculated from Cradley Heath to Birmingham Stns, for each and every occasion that they reckon you've short-fared, plus the admin fee that @Hadders has just mentioned.

They'll likely charge you for day return journeys at 2 x the Anytime Day Single fare rate, rather than using the slightly cheaper Anytime Day Return fare. If you're lucky, the unpaid fares due might only be calculated between Cradley Heath and Jewellery Quarter, which is £4.50 for an Anytime Day Single rather than £5.40. With multiple journeys, this could prove expensive, for what were modest "savings". Let you do the maths. And likely you'll have difficulty in convincing the train company that you had sometimes only travelled in from Rowley Regis to Birmingham Snow Hill, which is nearer in than from Cradley Heath, if all you ever held was tickets from Jewellery Quarter to Birmingham Stns, and these just to work the barriers at Birmingham Snow Hill.