How to pay GWR fine?

[Ghostblade1256]

So a month back I was traveling on a train from Bristol to London with a friend of mine. Unaware to me he bought me a Railcard ticket as I am new to UK and did not know the process of buying the tickets. When the TC checked, I obviously did not have a rail card and I was duly reported to the GWR prosecution department. The officer had told me that the fine would be issued in 3-4 weeks by mail. I had told him that I will not be reachable by mail as I am spending the vacation at home in Bangkok. I had given him my email and told him to note that please contact me by this as I will not be able to physically collect the mail. It's been more than a month now and I have not received any email from them. I have contacted the GWR prosecution department by email a few times and I have been told that my name is not in their database and that they will contact me when it is. I want to know if I'm in serious trouble or not as I just want to pay whatever fine and be done with it. Is there anything I can do right now?

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Welcome to the forum.

By the sound of things, you have done most of the things that you can do at this point. One thing that I would ask you to clarify is what address you gave when the officer asked you for one.

If you didn't give an address, then there's nothing to do.

If you gave your Bangkok address, then depending how well the British and Thai postal systems work together then a letter should arrive eventually.

If you gave a UK address, is that one that you will be returning to, or where someone can pass post on to you? If there is someone there who will help, ask them to open the post for you and send you a picture of the letter. If it's an address that you won't be returning to, you may need to arrange for post to be redirected - this should be fairly easy if you know what your UK address will be when you return from vacation. See https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/redirection for details.

 

[Deafdoggie]

Welcome to the forum.

By the sound of things, you have done most of the things that you can do at this point. One thing that I would ask you to clarify is what address you gave when the officer asked you for one.

If you didn't give an address, then there's nothing to do.

If you gave your Bangkok address, then depending how well the British and Thai postal systems work together then a letter should arrive eventually.

If you gave a UK address, is that one that you will be returning to, or where someone can pass post on to you? If there is someone there who will help, ask them to open the post for you and send you a picture of the letter. If it's an address that you won't be returning to, you may need to arrange for post to be redirected - this should be fairly easy if you know what your UK address will be when you return from vacation. See https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/redirection for details.

It's possible they set up a Royal Mail Keepsafe. This means the mail is not accessible to anyone and will be delivered, as addressed, on the date specified. This is the more usual arrangement for such things. It also means any letter is not accessible at the moment.

 

[ta-toget]

Have you heard any more about this, @Ghostblade1256, or have you contacted GWR since?