Accused of fraud by British Rail

rolo-polo1965

I have a family rail card and for the past three years have always had my name and my sons name on it as i am a single parent. We use it for holidays and days out trips to see family etc. Son is 20.

Son used it today to take his sisters Christmas shopping,

He bought an adult and 2 childs tickets from the man at the kiosk handing over the family rail card

They got on the train.

Ticket collecter a lady came along, he gave her the family rail card and his ticket. His sisters were holding out their tickets for the ticket collecter. Ticket collector snatched the tickets from the girls and started shouting at my son. "You have commited fraud, you are in serious trouble, you are going to have to pay a lot of money, i am going to see to that!" My son was in shock and my daughters started crying.

My son asked her politely what the problem was? She shouted at him, "You can not use this card, you are not one here!"

On looking at the card my son realised that a Mrs was listed and a Ms but not Mr. He apologised and told her that there is no Ms in our family and that the card must have been printed incorrectly.

She shouted again "You have commited fraud, you will have to pay a lot of money i shall see to that! You will all have to be escourted off the train and see the prosecutors at the end of the line!" She then stormed off with tehjir tickets and family rail card,

My son rang me in a state and told me what had happened. I told him to remain calm, he then told me he would ring me back.

The ticket collector came back to them, told them that if they bought new tickets then they would not have to see any one at the end of the line but that the card holder would recieve a letter!

The bought new tickets on the train!

Now what do i do?

Do i contact british rail to try and sort it out or should i wait for the letter?

I have tried to check who i originally had put on the card and could easily have made a mistake. I have severe dyslexia? Yes i should have checked the card when it first came but asumed it would be correct?

Thanks

timbo58

Sadly there is no BR anymore ( a superior company than any privatised one will ever be IMHO).

Write a letter explaining how the railcard was intended to be used and by whom and outlining the circumstances to the TOC concerned.
If you ring the local station or find the TOCs website you'll get the address of the correct department.
(any problems come back here and name the company and I am sure we'll find it for you).
Yes, it is an offence to use the railcard if you are not the named user, and it is the users responsibility to have checked this, the TOCs staff do have the right to take it away and charge again for full fare tickets or to consider prosecution, however it does sound from your sons account as if the staff member overreacted a little!

I wouldn't worry unduly about this, a good letter to the TOC will sort it out, whether your tickets will be refunded however I couldn't say.

(ex rail inspector manager)

MrRedundant

Oh come on did they really act like that? I strongly suspect you are embelishing in order to make it sound like you where treated badly.

The fact is the family railcard did not have your sons name on it; there was ample opportunity for you to check it and raise an issue. The upshot is he used a railcard he shouldnt have and thus was guilty of what was suggested.

Now by all means write a letter and hope it works but I would suggest if you take the attitude you have on here it wont go down well as whilst they may well have mistakenly printed a ms on the card you have never told them otherwise and they will experience fraud like that daily.

pcombo

Why didn't your son show the rail card to the ticket lady to prove his name was on the card.

Freddie_Snowbits

One question, how old is the railcard?

clever_username

MrRedundant wrote: »

Oh come on did they really act like that? I strongly suspect you are embellishing in order to make it sound like you where treated badly.

Nicely said.

Tigsteroonie

There hasn't been a "British Rail" for a good number of years, I am surprised anybody would still refer to them, even in anger

A "TOC" is a Train Operating Company (e.g. Virgin Trains, First TransPennine, Arriva). You buy the tickets from them, they run the trains. You will need to raise this matter with the appropriate Company - as a previous poster advised, as at your local station for the contact details; or look on their website.

olly300

MrRedundant wrote: »

Oh come on did they really act like that? I strongly suspect you are embelishing in order to make it sound like you where treated badly.

He didn't say who the train operating company was.

If it was SWT or Virgin Trains then unfortunately I believe him about the excessive shouting of the ticket collector.

Some TOC have a large amount of staff who treat everyone as a fare dodger even if their ticket is valid.

omen666

I can see the CPS waiting at the next station too

Freddie_Snowbits

No further questions, M'Lud.

I await the case for the defence

TheSaint_2

The ticket collectors can be rude, why do so many people on this site have to jump down the throat of the OP?
Good luck Rolo - ignore the rude people on this thread. A little common sense is all that was needed by the ticket gestapo in this case. It being a family raid card your son would have the same surname and so any person in their right mind should see that you are related and it was probably a mistake.