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Aren’t there two separate logical possibilities here? One is that the OP was prosecuted without their knowledge and convicted in their absence. That would require a statutory declaration to unpick, followed by a new trial or the discontinuation of the case. The other is that someone else was...

This is the crux of it. We (i.e. Parliament in legislating or tacitly authorising secondary legislation) have decided that some things are crimes even where it would be very difficult not to do the prohibited thing, or where there are significant factors which make doing that thing...

Legal proceedings, prosecuting you for the crime of boarding a train to travel without a valid ticket and/or travelling by train without paying your fare intending to avoid payment of the correct fare, are almost certain if you do not respond and do not pay the sum they are requesting. English...

Yes, the process has been followed 'correctly' in these cases; the problem is that the process doesn't require prosecutors to, for instance, read a mitigation statement by someone who has said they're pleading guilty and consider whether to withdraw the case. I expect in some of the TV Licence...

The letter says that a Penalty Fare Notice "was issued" yesterday. In plain English that would imply something created and delivered at that time. In the railway context I'd assume 'issued' to mean 'printed out/filled in and hand delivered on the spot' and that this is a reminder. If that's not...

I'm sure there's a technical reason that it's impossible: why can't a Voyager set have additional carriages between D and F? It seems unfortunate you couldn't do something like lead and trailing first class carriages with four to six standard class between them as a single 8-car set (and use the...

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act does not refer to the recordable/non-recordable distinction. A non-recordable conviction should not appear on the sources of information used to compile most DBS checks, so a person who does not disclose an un-spent non-recordable conviction might not be...

Yes, far more people than you’d expect have been convicted of byelaw offences. A year after the conviction date you would only have to reveal it in limited circumstances and even where it is disclosable, it is likely to be something considered to be very minor by anyone making decisions...

Do ensure that you complete and return the form for the court by the deadline. But before you do that, take some time to think. If you indicate on the form that you are pleading guilty, the court will accept that, and there will be very little or no opportunity to attempt to negotiate with...

The court process has become confused because you requested a hearing to make an application for the magistrates to re-open the case in the interests of justice. They have scheduled a hearing for that application. Theoretically, if you served a statutory declaration on them within an appropriate...

A year or two ago some family friends phoned National Rail Enquiries twice before buying a ticket and spoke to ticket-office staff on the second day to enquire about breaking the outward portion of an off-peak return overnight in circumstances where the break was two stops from the destination...

It would probably be worth trying to convince Nexus to treat any future reports of someone giving this name and the old address sceptically, and at least making contact by email as well as letter. But it depends whether they have designed a process which can cope with this situation, or if they...

They don't explain it in the letter, but it's almost certain that the train company believes you have travelled with invalid tickets on many previous journeys. They are requiring you to pay for the tickets they say they would have sold you on those trains, in exchange for not prosecuting you...

Do you always purchase a ticket well before boarding the train in Vauxhall? If you are confident you have never set foot on a train or in a compulsory ticket area prior to purchasing a ticket and having that available/delivered to your email and app, then it may be appropriate to be direct in...

Yes, I wondered if this rail service was part of or responsible to a local government organisation like a passenger transport executive or combined authority, in which case the Local Government Ombudsman may be able to get involved, or the parent organisation could be contacted to respond to...

If the letter was dated the day of the hearing is it possible it was set up to send before the hearing and crossed with details of an acquittal following a withdrawal of the charge? That may be unlikely but phoning or visiting the court to ask for precise details of what happened on the day...

Did you go into court, hear your case called, and observe the prosecutor offering no evidence, resulting in your acquittal?

The reason for that is that the criminal procedure rules do not enable additional offences to be taken into account using the Single Justice Procedure. It isn't an indicator of seriousness, as such, but a necessary part of the prosecutor inviting you to accept responsibility for the additional...

Yes, though I would find it very helpful to be able to access anything annotated to an e-ticket record, and where/when it was scanned. At the moment you can't verify that the data is correct, if staff have made some kind of mistake. It can't be impossible for a device to have the time set...

Slightly at a tangent but relevant to the original thread: has anyone asked a guard who scribbles or writes a date on a ticket with validity beyond that day to write something more precise on it? It does seem to be potentially confusing for staff who see a ticket in the future and who might have...