Accused of fraud by British Rail

aheaton46

MrRedundant, pcombo, Freddie_Snowbits, omen666, clever username - what a set of pointless and often rude replies. Wh not try actually helping people who post on these boards? What sad lives you must lead if insulting people online is how you get your kicks.

To the OP:

You will need to write to the train operator. Don't wait for them to contact you, they almost certainly won't. Demand the refund of the ticket cost, since the man in the kiosk should never have sold them tickets in the first place if there was a problem. Also you don't say if they returned the railcard; if not demand that back too.

pcombo

aheaton46 wrote: »

MrRedundant, pcombo, Freddie_Snowbits, omen666, clever username - what a set of pointless and often rude replies. Wh not try actually helping people who post on these boards? What sad lives you must lead if insulting people online is how you get your kicks.

To the OP:

You will need to write to the train operator. Don't wait for them to contact you, they almost certainly won't. Demand the refund of the ticket cost, since the man in the kiosk should never have sold them tickets in the first place if there was a problem. Also you don't say if they returned the railcard; if not demand that back too.

Not sure what post your reading of mine, But what i said was true, If your buying any tickets with rail cards they must be showed to the conductor/as well as people at ticket office to prove u actually have it.

I sure reason for this is you can buy your tickets at a machine and select what reailcard card u have in which case if you didn't own a rail cardcard that would be fraud.

Stigy

rolo-polo1965 wrote: »

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

Firstly, this thread is in the wrong section. It should be in the Transport Section I would have throught. I only found it through a search of the site.

Okay, although others have said some TOCs' staff are rude, which is very true and unfortunately how it seems to be these days, some of what you say just appears unbelievable!

If, as I suspect, your son has been reported for an alleged offence, then getting hold of the TOC now won't do any good. He needs to wait for them to contact him, which should outline what their intentions are. He then needs to write an apologetic letter and state what happened in his view. If it clearly was a mistake on somebody elses part (Staff member), he needs to say that. I'm imagining questions were asked at the time, probably under caution, which you'd need to ask your son about. If he was using the ticket and his name wasn't listed, he'd have been questioned on that. If the TOC seeks to prosecute, normally I'd suggest offering to pay all admin costs to stay out of court, but if your son really feels he's done nothing wrong, he needs to plead his case to a Magistrate if the TOC aren't interested!

omen666 wrote: »

I can see the CPS waiting at the next station too

The CPS wouldn't be involved unless the Police were, it'll be the TOC's prosecutor...And he/she wont be meeting any trains either.

aheaton wrote:

You will need to write to the train operator. Don't wait for them to contact you, they almost certainly won't. Demand the refund of the ticket cost, since the man in the kiosk should never have sold them tickets in the first place if there was a problem. Also you don't say if they returned the railcard; if not demand that back too.

Rubbish. If the person has been reported, which is the only reason I can think of that the OP would say the staff said they'd write to her son, then he'll be written to. The tickets remain the property of the TOC, and if they believe an offence might have been committed, any authorised person is allowed to withdraw any rail tickets/cards. Demanding them back will certainly not help him. The issue here as I see it isn't the fact that the OP and/or her son is out of pocket a few quid for the cost of new tickets, but the fact that the TOC might seek to prosecute.

dmg24

Stigy wrote: »

The CPS wouldn't be involved unless the Police were, it'll be the TOC's prosecutor...And he/she wont be meeting any trains either.

I imagine omen666 was being ironic.

Stigy

dmg24 wrote: »

I imagine omen666 was being ironic.

I imagined he was being sarcastic, too, but wished to point out it wouldn't have been the CPS anyway...:beer:

fluffnutter

I've read a few articles suggesting that ticket inspectors let their little caps and uniforms go to their heads... not exactly the same scenario but it illustrates my point.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/oct/23/train-fare-dodging-commuters

WhiteHorse

Technically, the ticket collector on the spot was in the right, although in the long run, the Railcard terms and conditions were actually complied with.

To fight it properly will require proof that the applicant did not apply for Mrs/Ms. It also begs the question: Why did he not pick up this error much earlier?

aheaton46

WhiteHorse wrote: »

Technically, the ticket collector on the spot was in the right, although in the long run, the Railcard terms and conditions were actually complied with.

To fight it properly will require proof that the applicant did not apply for Mrs/Ms. It also begs the question: Why did he not pick up this error much earlier?

Because he did not apply for the railcard, his dyslexic mother did. The error also got past the person who sold the tickets in the first place.

rolo-polo1965

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.

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.

This is all fact no embelishing at all!

rolo-polo1965

Freddie_Snowbits wrote: »

One question, how old is the railcard?

The rail card is 3 weeks old!