Wrong name. Penalty fare

[rylondon1]

Hi all,

Had an issue today with Thameslink — I was travelling from Stevenage to Farringdon with an expired railcard (only about a £3 difference). The inspector initially tried to issue a penalty fare, but I panicked and gave the wrong name and address, which resulted in a witness statement report. I regret that.

I’ve since contacted their prosecutions team by email with the reference number and my correct details.

Just wanted to ask:
- Is there anything else I should be doing at this stage?
- What should I expect next in terms of process and likely outcome?

Appreciate any advice from people who’ve been through similar.

Thanks

 

[John R]

If they now have your correct details (have they confirmed receipt of your email) then at this stage there is nothing to do but wait for them to contact you.

Provided you cooperate from now on, it's highly likely that you will be be offered an out of court settlement, based on the full single fare for the journey, together with an admin fee, which could be £150, but GTR often seem to charge £50 for simple cases. One question is for how long has your railcard been expired, and how many journeys have you taken in that time? Rail companies often review your online ticketing account (assuming they scanned your e-ticket, rather than it being a paper one) and base their settlement on all the journeys where you have incorrectly used a railcard.

 

[rylondon1]

Thank you! I got this. So I will wait for a full confirmation of reception of the email. Should I send a letter aswell to cover all bases?

Thanks a lot.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Apr 2026 ==

And I’ve railcard expired in December. I’ve bee out of the country for past 2/3
Months so there won’t be that that many journeys on my account.

 

[John R]

I would wait a few days, as although your case doesn't fall into those categories (it wasn't that you failed to carry a valid railcard, you didn't have one), advising of correct contact details is something that I think they will likely deal with, provided the email didn't go too much into the specifics of the case, and what happened.

If you haven't heard back in a week then you would be advised to send a letter, which should be sent tracked so that you can get evidence of delivery. You might wish to post a draft here before you do, so posters here can ensure you're saying the right things.

 

[SECR 65]

You said that you originally provided the inspector with incorrect details, but then they gave you a witness statement. Presumably you had not given the inspector any correct details by the end of your exchange with them?

As said above you will likely be sent a notice of intent to prosecute (these are normally sent by post) and, provided you engage with the letter and admit wrongdoing, you are likely to be offered an out of court settlement. The best thing to do whilst awaiting a reply from GTR is to read through other threads on the forum of a similar nature to get an idea of the normal letter they send and the general response people give.

 

[rylondon1]

Yeah i did have a railcard, but it expired in December. I then stupidly gave fake details. But she also took a picture of my railcard with my name on it. So yeah I will wait a week and then follow up. Thank you for the advise. You live and learn.