Yesterday morning I was caught using a Zone 1 & 2 paper Travel card. I live in Zone 5. I was coming from zone 4. I've been doing this for about 2 years. Today was the first time I was caught. I told the officer most of the truth, but told him I had only been doing it for about 5 months.
I'm going to guess that you're boarding at stations without ticket barriers in zones 4 and 5 and then travelling to stations with barriers in zones and 1 and 2?
Presuming this, this is potentially very serious. Train companies take a dim view of long-term, deliberate fare evasion, which is what this amounts to. A quick check suggests that if you've been buying annual paper travelcards, then you've saved approximately £1000 a year by doing this (A zone 1-5 annual travelcard is £996 more than a zone 1-2). In financial terms, this puts your case in the upper bracket of fare evasion (though not at the absolute top).
That said, train companies
do sometimes settle out of court even when very large amounts have been evaded. Your case is not the absolute most serious (you have not, for example, fraudulently made fake tickets or attempted to alter expiry dates). It is likely that any settlement with the company would involve repaying some or all of the evaded fare. It would be particularly useful to know which train company you're dealing with, as nuts & bolts asked, as they have very different tendencies when it comes to prosecution.
Could it be worth writing/calling the prosecution office, stating the above and saying I'm happy to pay the fine upfront?
No. This case will be passed on to someone in the prosecution office to investigate, and they will write to you asking for your explanation. Until it lands on someone's desk, which might take a few weeks, essentially you just have to wait. You will have the opportunity to offer to settle out of court when responding to that letter. Given the amount evaded, there is also the possibility that the train company may ask you to attend an interview to discuss this further. The train company will be looking to establish the extent of your evasion at that point. You are not obliged to attend of course, but it may offer a chance to discuss settling.
does anybody have any idea how much it will be? A solicitor friend told me the max it could be is £1000 and that's only in very rare cases.
I don't
think that's correct, but I'm willing to be corrected. The most likely legislation that they will look to prosecute you under is the
Regulation of the Railways Act. You can see the fine bands that magistrates must follow; these are calculated in terms of
relevant weekly income. There's no mention of a £1000 cap here.
There is the complicating matter of your lie about 5 months v 2 years. If discovered, this lie would likely make the company less likely to settle, as it shows increase harm (in terms of financial loss) and would provide greater evidence for intent to avoid the fare. Given this lie, and the amount involved, I would advise having a more formal conversation with a criminal law solicitor; you can usually get free consultations. I would probably do this upon receiving the first letter from the train company, as you may want legal advice in responding to the letter.
A full prosecution could cost me my job, so ideally I need to try and avoid that
If it's not identifying, you could give us the industry that you work in and we might be able to provide more advice; you'd be surprised how many professionals do have criminal records! If you don't want to do that, then I would strongly advise speaking to a union rep if you have one, and to look up your relevant HR policies.
You may also want to edit your initial post to remove your name. I don't know if it's possible to change your user name, but again you might want to speak to an admin of the forums to see if this is possible.
I don't want to sound too negative; there is a chance the train company will offer to settle this matter out of court. However, you should prepare yourself for the possibility a prosecution, given the amount evaded.
(I also don't surf for what its worth!)
