Notice of Intended Prosecution for Fine that isn't mine

[Monsteraleaf]

I received a letter from IRCAS today for an £80 fine, that I've heard nothing of before.
To the best of my knowledge there is no reason for me to have been fined by any transport department as I haven't evaded any fares!
The letter states my name with my surname incorrectly spelled, and says that I gave incorrect information (the wrong address) to the Transport Operating Officer.
It states a previous postcode of mine at which I was housesharing about 2 years ago and says this was the address given.
I suspect that maybe someone from this house may have given my name and that address to evade a fare, and then IRCAS have found me to not be living there and chased me to my current address.

I can't find a number to contact IRCAS on and in all honesty this had made me extremely anxious and I don't know how to proceed.

It doesn't state why I was being fined or on which transport service so I have very little information to go on.

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated, thank you

 

[NSB2017]

"If you have received a letter addressed to you but you did not make the journey in question then you must contact the IRCAS Customer Services Team either online here or by post to PO Box 212, Petersfield GU32 9BQ. You may be asked to provide sufficient evidence to support your claim."

https://www.ircas.co.uk/Home/ContactUs

 

[cuccir]

Are there really no details as to the date/time/stations on which you were alledged to have travelled?

IRCAS are a company that train operating companies (TOCs) hire to investgiate instances of possilbe fare evasion. The traveller will have been stopped by staff working for the TOC, and the case details passed to IRCAS. IRCAS' job is to investigate and either: obtain an out court settlement form the traveller; recommend that the case is dropped; recommend that the traveller be prosecuted by the train company for fare evasion.

It is likely that the £80 is not what is legally a 'fine', which referes to a court-ordered punishment, but rather an amount that the alledged offender can pay to avoid prosecution (an 'out of court settlement'). £80 is quite a standard amount 'charged' in these circumstances. The importance of all this is that it means that it is worth getting things sorted as IRCAS could decide to recommend prosecuting you, so getting rid of this before then will be much less hassle.

It's relatively common for people to give false details as there's no obligation in the UK to have any ID on you, so if you know someone else's details the TOCs have no means of checking that when you're stopped. It's cheaper and easier for TOCs to then proceed as if the details were correct, rather than to do follow up work to try and confirm them.

Obviously you're under no olbigation to 'prove' it wasn't you travelling: the legal system in the UK puts the burden of proof onto anyone prosecuting. But if you have robust evidence that it wasn't you, it is worth telling IRCAS that now so that they are convinced to not try and proceed with this any further. The best evidence for most people is likely to be a mixture of testimony from colleagues/friends, with circumstantical evidence (appointments diary, receipts, travel tickets, etc). In isolation all of these are challengable but presuming they support each other they should be enough together.

Respond to them in writing, not via a webform. Tell them it wasn't you. Then,

1. If you have the time/date of the incident, state breifly what you were doing then and that you have supporting evidence in the form of (eg testimony, appointments diary, receipts/travel tickets for a different location). You don't actually have to have gathered these things yet, and DON'T send anything which you'd need access to if they did try and prosecute you, but if you can list what evidence you'd reasonably expect to be able to provide then that's good.

2. If there is no detail as to the time and date, simply state that you have not travelled on the UK rail network without a ticket, and that if they provide you with details of the alledged offence you'll be able to tell them where you were at that time/date.

 

[some bloke]

This isn't a recommendation for what you should do, but if it were me, I'd probably try to get rid of this by the end of the day. I would fill in the web form with something like your first four sentences above, if appropriate adding a bit about evidence I could supply. Then I would call, because I would think the risk of incriminating myself would be pretty low.

How you decide to deal with this may depend on personal factors including your communication style(s) and how much you value dealing with it quickly.

Perhaps the phone numbers given here still work:
0845 434 8272
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/contact-details-ircas.87134/
01730235302
https://www.freeber.co.uk/free-phon...t_8881_automated-payment-and-information-line

Is the letter about prosecution after a Penalty Fare was not paid? If you like, you could upload the letter here with identifying details removed.

 

[Haywain]

the legal system in the UK puts the burden of proof onto anyone prosecuting.

And yet people get convicted every day of committing crimes that they deny. It is not sufficient to simply say "it wasn't me", you have to provide information that will convince the prosecutor or the court that that is the case.

 

[some bloke]

state that you have not travelled on the UK rail network without a ticket, and that if they provide you with details of the alledged offence you'll be able to tell them where you were at that time/date.

You could say, if it applies, that you have not given your details to any rail company officer in the course of travelling; and that you might be able to say where you were if they inform you of the relevant date and time (it may be that you can't guarantee this in advance).

If they don't drop the matter, you could:

a) make a Subject Access Request for the information they hold about you. You could phrase it in a way that makes clear you only want information that actually is about you, not someone wrongly thought to be you.

b) perhaps at a later stage ask them to disclose the evidence they have against you.

Either of those might discourage further action.

 

[jfollows]

Personally, I would put my statement in writing and get (free) proof of posting from a Post Office, and of course keep a copy of the letter.

I think it's worth remembering that providing someone else's name/address happens frequently on our transport network, so although you need to be clear in your response you shouldn't feel especially singled out or victimised. It's annoying, but the cause is the person who gave your details in the first place.

I myself had a similar problem a few years ago with Manchester Metrolink, I wrote to them and received confirmation that the case against me would be dropped relatively speedily. In my case I told them that I had a suspicion of who gave my details (a former tenant) if they wanted to proceed further against him, but they didn't want to.

 

[WesternLancer]

I received a letter from IRCAS today for an £80 fine, that I've heard nothing of before.
To the best of my knowledge there is no reason for me to have been fined by any transport department as I haven't evaded any fares!
The letter states my name with my surname incorrectly spelled, and says that I gave incorrect information (the wrong address) to the Transport Operating Officer.
It states a previous postcode of mine at which I was housesharing about 2 years ago and says this was the address given.
I suspect that maybe someone from this house may have given my name and that address to evade a fare, and then IRCAS have found me to not be living there and chased me to my current address.

I can't find a number to contact IRCAS on and in all honesty this had made me extremely anxious and I don't know how to proceed.

It doesn't state why I was being fined or on which transport service so I have very little information to go on.

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated, thank you

In addition to all the other useful advice it may be that you have been a victim of identity theft so you could take some steps to check that and take action to prevent further probs.

eg - ref that house share where you lived -
- get a Royal Mail postal redirect in place https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/redirection potentially for 12 months, any post going to that address then then comes to your new address (even junk mail) send a stand message / letter to them saying you no longer live there and request you be removed from their database (unless you still want the post in which case tell them of new correct address of course)

- consider going to the old address and asking whoever lives there now if any post for you (pretty common in any shared property I have been involved with) ask for it all and take it away. If you don't want it as junk mail cross through your name and address on the letter, without obliterating it and write 'Return to sender no longer at this address' on the envelope and drop in a Royal Mail letter box - no stamp required.

- make sure you are correctly on the electoral roll at your current correct address but opt out of the 'public register' that gets sold to marketing orgs https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

- contact the relevant council who cover the old address, make sure they have removed you from the electoral register at that address (don't assume that just because you don't get council tax bills etc for there that you are not still on the register - the 2 departments of the council will not exchange such info routinely, if at all!)

Good luck getting this sorted, should not be too bad. Head back for more advice ref the rail penalty etc if you need it!

 

[packermac]

Personally, I would put my statement in writing and get (free) proof of posting from a Post Office, and of course keep a copy of the letter.

I think it's worth remembering that providing someone else's name/address happens frequently on our transport network, so although you need to be clear in your response you shouldn't feel especially singled out or victimised. It's annoying, but the cause is the person who gave your details in the first place.

I myself had a similar problem a few years ago with Manchester Metrolink, I wrote to them and received confirmation that the case against me would be dropped relatively speedily. In my case I told them that I had a suspicion of who gave my details (a former tenant) if they wanted to proceed further against him, but they didn't want to.

Proof of Posting really means very little other than you handed it in. For an extra £1 or so over First Class send it First Class signed for. This will give you a tracking number then in a day or so go on the Post Office website which will show the signature and delivery time and date and screen dump that into a word document for future reference if receipt is denied.
https://www.royalmail.com/track-your-item#/

 

[some bloke]

The parts I've bolded here may be of interest, from the (Penalty Fares) Appeals Service website. It may be wisest to send photocopies/photos of the documents rather than the documents themselves, at least to start with.

What do I do if I’ve received a letter but I did not travel?

If you have received a letter addressed to you but you did not make the journey in question then you must contact IRCAS by email at [email protected] or by post to PO Box 212, Petersfield GU32 9BQ. Please include your date of birth within your correspondence, include a brief description of yourself, and provide supporting documentation such as a document with your signature on (ie. driving licence, passport, or reverse of a debit/credit card).

It may be possible that an imposter has used your details and any supporting information or evidence you supply will therefore be treated confidentially and solely for the purposes of correctly identifying the person giving your details fraudulently. We will do all we can to assist you and, importantly, we will gather as much pertinent information as possible in order to help the transport companies identify the use of false details in the future.

https://www.appealservice.co.uk/Faq