byronsmithnz
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Fawkes Cat
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Welcome to the forum.
We can’t guarantee what the railway will do (they’re within their rights to go straight to court) but the most likely course of events will be that they write to you asking for your side of the story. I cannot advise you to be anything but honest in responding to that letter: in particular there’s no point in now buying a railcard to cover yesterday’s travel in that the railway will notice that the railcard wasn’t valid on the date of journey.
Instead, what you need to do is to convince the railway that you have learnt your lesson, that they will get their money back for the dodged fare, and that you do not need to be taken to court to recognise that you were in the wrong. So when they write to you, write back
- honestly: tell them what you were trying to do
- apologetically: make it clear that you now know it was wrong and that the railway is entitled to the proper fare for a journey
- constructively: be clear that you are prepared to pay the fare that you dodged and the costs of the investigation that the railway will have incurred. Also explain what steps you are taking to avoid the same problem happening again (and for this purpose, if you are entitled to a railcard it may be worth buying one, to show that you are willing to follow the rules)
- briefly: it’s easier for whoever reads your letter to find the important points in a short letter
- courteously: you want whoever reads the letter on your side, and that will be easier if you are nice to them.
The chances are that your first offer to settle will be refused: from what we see here, that’s frequently the case, particularly if the railway employ a firm called Transport Investigations Ltd to carry out the investigation. So carry on asking each time you are in touch - even talking to the prosecutor at the court room door if the case does go to court.
So you might feel that you need a solicitor. As you have found, they are not cheap. But before going down that route, think about what a conviction would mean to you. Obviously it’s not a good thing to have a conviction - but would it cause you problems at work or in getting a job? For most jobs, the answer is ‘no’: fare-dodging once is (as you probably now know) a stupid thing to do - but everyone does stupid things from time to time, and employers know this. As long as you don’t make a habit of it (which would suggest persistent bad judgement) or try to hide your conviction (ditto, and suggests dishonesty) there probably won’t be a problem. Some jobs are tighter than this - but they generally have regulators with websites which explain their rules. So have a look at the website to check the rules if that means you.
We can’t guarantee what the railway will do (they’re within their rights to go straight to court) but the most likely course of events will be that they write to you asking for your side of the story. I cannot advise you to be anything but honest in responding to that letter: in particular there’s no point in now buying a railcard to cover yesterday’s travel in that the railway will notice that the railcard wasn’t valid on the date of journey.
Instead, what you need to do is to convince the railway that you have learnt your lesson, that they will get their money back for the dodged fare, and that you do not need to be taken to court to recognise that you were in the wrong. So when they write to you, write back
- honestly: tell them what you were trying to do
- apologetically: make it clear that you now know it was wrong and that the railway is entitled to the proper fare for a journey
- constructively: be clear that you are prepared to pay the fare that you dodged and the costs of the investigation that the railway will have incurred. Also explain what steps you are taking to avoid the same problem happening again (and for this purpose, if you are entitled to a railcard it may be worth buying one, to show that you are willing to follow the rules)
- briefly: it’s easier for whoever reads your letter to find the important points in a short letter
- courteously: you want whoever reads the letter on your side, and that will be easier if you are nice to them.
The chances are that your first offer to settle will be refused: from what we see here, that’s frequently the case, particularly if the railway employ a firm called Transport Investigations Ltd to carry out the investigation. So carry on asking each time you are in touch - even talking to the prosecutor at the court room door if the case does go to court.
So you might feel that you need a solicitor. As you have found, they are not cheap. But before going down that route, think about what a conviction would mean to you. Obviously it’s not a good thing to have a conviction - but would it cause you problems at work or in getting a job? For most jobs, the answer is ‘no’: fare-dodging once is (as you probably now know) a stupid thing to do - but everyone does stupid things from time to time, and employers know this. As long as you don’t make a habit of it (which would suggest persistent bad judgement) or try to hide your conviction (ditto, and suggests dishonesty) there probably won’t be a problem. Some jobs are tighter than this - but they generally have regulators with websites which explain their rules. So have a look at the website to check the rules if that means you.
WesternLancer
Established Member
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- 12 Apr 2019
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Perhaps some similarities to this recent thread - which you may have already looked over, in terms of what happens, if not the nature of the exact offence, but advice in there seems pertinent if you have a look through it
Short_Ticket
My daughter was stopped this week using a 'short-ticket. She entered the origin two stops away from London to save some money. She has done this four times. She confessed and owned up to the detaining officer at the southern barrier and admitted she intentionally tried to avoid the fares. At...
www.railforums.co.uk
There are other threads that quote sums in settlement or court fines and sums levied, so you could see how they compare to the £750 legal quote, and weigh that up in such terms as Fawkes Cat suggests. I guess you are basically paying the solicitor to seek to negotiate on your behalf to avoid court and obtain a settlement offer, or if it went to court, to minimise the penalty. IE paying them to draft the sort of letter Fawkes Cat has outlined above!
I take it that you pretended to have railcard on your phone that you were unable to show? Being unable to show the Railcard is a breach of ticketing rules / 'law' in itself - ie you are required to show a valid railcard with a discounted ticket if asked by a representative of the railway (tho you have a grace period to produce one if you did in fact have one under the Forgotten Railcard Procedure).
I suppose there are various excuses like 'I thought I had a railcard but did not realise it had expired' etc that could be tried, but since they will have access to the Railcard holder database I presume (even for paper railcards), that would only really be worth trying if it was vaguely true.
You probably now need to wait for the letter on behalf of Greater Anglia to see what it says and then seek advice here again and then at that point consider the option of engaging a solicitor.
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