Chiltern railways fare evasion transport investigations

[Dachshund123]

Transport investigations letter

Hello guys, on July 01 2020 I was caught by chiltern railways for failing to produce a valid ticket for my travel. I have no argument for this, I just bought a child’s ticket to try and save a couple squids. Which has ultimately came back to haunt me.

In the letter it says “The report of this incident indicates that in the absence of a satisfactory explanation, evidence does exist to warrant a prosecution in accordance with current legislation.”
It also says that the purpose of the letter is to “provide you with the opportunity to inform us of any mitigation that you may wish to be considered.”

My understanding of this letter is, that if I don’t provide a good enough reason that they are taking me to court. I have searched this up and have seen that some people have settled out of court for £100-£200.

What should my next steps be, I really cannot afford to have a criminal record.

Thanks in advance

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Welcome to the forum.

Let's start with the bad news: there's no way to guarantee that you won't be taken to court.

But it's always worth trying to see if the railway will agree to settle out of court. So write to them and ask.

But you will have to say more than 'can I pay you to make this go away?' You need to make it clear that you
- understand that what you did was wrong
- are sorry
- are prepared to pay enough that the railway won't be out of pocket from the fare they lost and the cost of the investigation, and
- won't do it again.

Your letter should be short (someone is going to have to read it, and it's hard finding the point in long letters) and polite.

From your heading, it looks as if Chiltern employ Transport Investigations Ltd (TIL). In general, TIL don't accept a first offer of settlement, so you may have to write several times. You may even have to attend court and ask the prosecutor on the day for a settlement, and you may ultimately fail and have to accept a fine. That will give a conviction. But bear in mind that a conviction for fare-dodging once is generally seen as a mistake, not as something that will end a career. It's embarrassing, but not disastrous!

 

[Dachshund123]

Welcome to the forum.

Let's start with the bad news: there's no way to guarantee that you won't be taken to court.

But it's always worth trying to see if the railway will agree to settle out of court. So write to them and ask.

But you will have to say more than 'can I pay you to make this go away?' You need to make it clear that you
- understand that what you did was wrong
- are sorry
- are prepared to pay enough that the railway won't be out of pocket from the fare they lost and the cost of the investigation, and
- won't do it again.

Your letter should be short (someone is going to have to read it, and it's hard finding the point in long letters) and polite.

From your heading, it looks as if Chiltern employ Transport Investigations Ltd (TIL). In general, TIL don't accept a first offer of settlement, so you may have to write several times. You may even have to attend court and ask the prosecutor on the day for a settlement, and you may ultimately fail and have to accept a fine. That will give a conviction. But bear in mind that a conviction for fare-dodging once is generally seen as a mistake, not as something that will end a career. It's embarrassing, but not disastrous!

Thanks for the reply, doesn’t sound too convincing, I really want a settlement out of court cbb for all that riffraff, do you know if a phone call would be good?

 

[choochootrain]

Welcome to the forum.

Let's start with the bad news: there's no way to guarantee that you won't be taken to court.

But it's always worth trying to see if the railway will agree to settle out of court. So write to them and ask.

But you will have to say more than 'can I pay you to make this go away?' You need to make it clear that you
- understand that what you did was wrong
- are sorry
- are prepared to pay enough that the railway won't be out of pocket from the fare they lost and the cost of the investigation, and
- won't do it again.

Your letter should be short (someone is going to have to read it, and it's hard finding the point in long letters) and polite.

From your heading, it looks as if Chiltern employ Transport Investigations Ltd (TIL). In general, TIL don't accept a first offer of settlement, so you may have to write several times. You may even have to attend court and ask the prosecutor on the day for a settlement, and you may ultimately fail and have to accept a fine. That will give a conviction. But bear in mind that a conviction for fare-dodging once is generally seen as a mistake, not as something that will end a career. It's embarrassing, but not disastrous!

Not to sound rude, but something I keep seeing on these forums is the 'fact' that a conviction is not career ending. That may be the case for most but there are a few professions where any sort of conviction would mean the end of your career. I work with vulnerable children and one of my colleagues was immediately fired when he picked up a conviction for drunk driving...

 

[SussexMan]

Not to sound rude, but something I keep seeing on these forums is the 'fact' that a conviction is not career ending. That may be the case for most but there are a few professions where any sort of conviction would mean the end of your career. I work with vulnerable children and one of my colleagues was immediately fired when he picked up a conviction for drunk driving...

What was said was "a conviction for fare-dodging". What you said was "a conviction for drunk-driving".

Not to sound rude but they aren't the same thing.

 

[choochootrain]

What was said was "a conviction for fare-dodging". What you said was "a conviction for drunk-driving".

Not to sound rude but they aren't the same thing.

You're right, in some circumstances the fare dodging conviction would be seen as a worse thing as it's an honesty issue.

 

[MikeWh]

You're right, in some circumstances the fare dodging conviction would be seen as a worse thing as it's an honesty issue.

It is, but if you do it once and learn your lesson, and mention it when asked, it is treated as a mistake. If you try to hide it and it gets found out then it is more of an honesty issue.

 

[6Gman]

Thanks for the reply, doesn’t sound too convincing, I really want a settlement out of court cbb for all that riffraff, do you know if a phone call would be good?

I don't really understand what you're saying here. "cbb for all that riffraff" ?

 

[Dachshund123]

I don't really understand what you're saying here. "cbb for all that riffraff" ?

Sorry, I cannot be bothered to be attending court.

 

[6Gman]

Sorry, I cannot be bothered to be attending court.

Well, that's your choice but we are still some away from that.

If it proceeded to court would you expect to plead Guilty or Not Guilty?

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Thanks for the reply, doesn’t sound too convincing, I really want a settlement out of court c[an’t] b[e] b[othered] for all that riffraff, do you know if a phone call would be good?

For your immediate question, our experience here is that a phone call won’t work: I don’t recall seeing any cases where someone successfully negotiated a settlement by phone. I may be wrong in that there may be cases that I have forgotten, or you may be the first person to succeeed by that route. But it’s not one I can recommend.

I also suspect that you haven’t fully considered the position that you are in: you are on the verge of becoming involved with the criminal justice system - and (a) it’s not your choice as to whether you enter this system and (b) once you’re involved participation is not voluntary. Put bluntly, if you are charged in a court and do not co-operate then you leave yourself open to arrest and being held until your case is heard. It may be unlikely that you would be arrested for not showing up for court when the issue is fare-dodging - but that would be the risk you would face.

On the basis of your initial post, you travelled on a child ticket when you weren’t entitled to. That means that you have broken the law. That, in turn, means that you are not in a strong position to negotiate, which in its turn means that the question isn’t whether you can be bothered to take the steps that might keep you out of court, but how much staying out of court matters to you. If you can’t be bothered with writing to seek the railway’s kindness in allowing an out of court settlement, then you will end up with a conviction. If you don’t want a conviction, then you must bother with writing to the railway. You may be able to have one of these positions (the railway isn’t obliged to settle out of court) but you certainly can’t have both.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Sorry, I cannot be bothered to be attending court.

You are not required to physically turn up to Court if that's the way things proceed. You can plead guilty (or not guilty) on the papers. For the former plea you can submit details of your income and any fine will be decided on that basis in your absence; for the latter, the matter would likely be deferred to a later hearing, which it would be advisable to attend.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks for the reply, doesn’t sound too convincing, I really want a settlement out of court cbb for all that riffraff, do you know if a phone call would be good?

almost certainly a waste of your time navigating thru the phone system. You will have to 'play by their rules' now if you cant afford to have criminal record, as you stated in your OP. The other advice on here is how you should approach the matter.